Tag: Kim Yo-jong

Is this a sign that the Moon administration is wavering on conducting the upcoming combined exercise with the U.S.?:

South Korea said Monday it’ll keep pushing to improve ties and resume talks with rival North Korea, despite the North’s threat to rekindle animosities if Seoul holds its summertime military drills with the United States.

On Sunday night, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the drills would seriously undermine efforts to restore mutual trust between the Koreas and becloud prospects for better ties if the training is launched as scheduled this month. Her statement raised a question about the sincerity of North Korea’s recent decision to reopen long-stalled communication channels with South Korea. 

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday the exact timing, size and other details of the drills haven’t been fixed and that they were the issues that must be determined by South Korean and U.S. authorities. Spokesman Boo Seung-Chan repeated his previous statement that Seoul and Washington are examining factors like the pandemic’s current status, diplomat efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and South Korea-U.S. military readiness.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Kim Yo-jong is out playing the bad cop again:

The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Tuesday that the United States has “wrong” expectations after U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan called Kim’s comments about dialogue with the U.S. an “interesting signal.”

The statement from Kim Yo-jong also came a day after U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim said the U.S. has offered to meet with the North “anywhere, anytime without preconditions” and looks forward to Pyongyang responding positively to the overtures.

“I heard the news that the U.S. National Security Advisor had mentioned that he regards the position towards the U.S. as an ‘interesting signal,'” she said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency said.

“A Korean proverb says that ‘In a dream, what counts most is to read it, not to have it,'” she said. “It seems that the U.S. may interpret the situation in such a way as to seek a comfort for itself. The expectation, which they chose to harbour the wrong way, would plunge them into a greater disappointment.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but like I have said before, the Kim regime will meet when they feel like they will get something of value out of it for little to nothing in return. So far the Biden administration is not willing to offer that.

So much for Kim Yo-jong being sidelined by her brother because she is clearly back to playing a key role attacking South Korea and the U.S.:

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Tuesday to scrap a military peace agreement with South Korea and break up a Workers’ Party organ tasked with inter-Korean dialogue as she lambasted the South for conducting military exercises with the United States.

Kim Yo-jong also warned the new U.S. administration of President Joe Biden not to engage in such hostile acts, saying it better not do things that would “keep it from getting a good night’s sleep” if it wants to sleep well for the next four years.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the balloon launches that bring propaganda leaflets over the border in North Korea will soon be stopped by the Moon administration:

The government is working on a plan to legislate a ban on sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the communist nation, the unification ministry said Thursday, hours after North Korea railed against such leaflets and threatened to scrap a no-hostility military pact with the South.

The envisioned legislation is aimed at preventing chilly inter-Korean relations from deteriorating further, but enacting a law banning leaflet-sending could spark an outcry over the possible infringement of the right to freedom of expression.

The announcement came hours after Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, issued a statement denouncing the flying-in of such propaganda leaflets as a hostile act that runs counter to peace agreements the two sides signed during summit talks of their leaders in 2018.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Kim Yo-jong claims the leaflets are causing environmental pollution. I wonder if she will send the activists that send these balloons tickets for littering?

What I find most interesting about this, is how much more Kim Jong-un’s sister is taking on a leadership role within the regime to include responding to a letter from the U.S. President:

Donald Trump has sent a letter to Kim Jong Un detailing a plan to develop ties, state media reported citing the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, but she warned their good personal relationship is not enough, as a hiatus in disarmament talks drags on.

The statement by Kim Yo Jong came a day after the nuclear-armed North fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday, the latest such action it has taken this year.

“In the letter, he (Trump)… explained his plan to propel the relations between the two countries of the DPRK and the US and expressed his intent to render cooperation in the anti-epidemic work,” an apparent reference to the coronavirus pandemic, Kim Yo Jong said in the statement carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday.

A senior administration official confirmed Trump sent a letter to Kim Jong Un, “consistent with his efforts to engage global leaders during the ongoing pandemic”.

“The President looks forward to continued communications with Chairman Kim”, the official said.

While the letter reflects “excellent” ties between the two leaders, Kim Yo Jong warned that broader relations between their two nations are different.

“We try to hope for the day when the relations between the two countries would be as good as the ones between the two top leaders, but it has to be left to time and be watched whether it can actually happen,” the sister said.

AFP

You can read more at the link.

Here is something interesting, it appears that Kim Jong-un is now allowing his sister to take shots at South Korea:

On Tuesday night, Kim issued her first official statement, strongly slamming South Korea’s presidential office for complaining about the North’s recent short-range projectile launches, claiming that they were just an act of self-defense.

She stopped short of directly criticizing President Moon Jae-in but heaped vitriolic criticism and scorn over Cheong Wa Dae’s “senseless” and “foolish” act, saying that the South is demanding a stop to the North’s customary training while pushing for its own military drills with the United States. 

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, the first such launch in about three months. North Korean media later said it was a long-range artillery firing drill overseen by leader Kim.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong was supposedly disciplined, it sure didn’t last very long because she is back in the spotlight:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister has appeared in public for the first time in 53 days, contradicting rumors that she was disciplined in the wake of the leader’s embarrassing no-deal summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim Yo-jong attended North Korea’s propaganda group gymnastics and artist performance called “The Land of the People” held in Pyongyang’s May Day Stadium on Monday, along with leader Kim, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It marked the first time that Kim Yo-jong has appeared in public since she was last seen in North Korean media during the Supreme People’s Assembly in April. Until then, she played the role of a personal secretary for the leader, and was seen holding an ashtray when he was having a cigarette break at a Chinese train station on his way to Vietnam for the summit with Trump.

The report came after rumors of a purge spiked following a news report that leader Kim had carried out a massive punishment of officials responsible for the breakdown of the Trump summit and that Kim Yo-jong was disciplined.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.