North Korea Denounces South Korea and the US

Analysts and U.S. officials are concerned about the possibility of North Korea’s missile tests as the United States reviews its policy towards North Korea. (WikiCommons)

North Korea issued a statement denouncing South Korea and the United States for their joint military exercise on March 16. In the debut statement, Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, threatened to consider terminating the inter-Korean military peace agreement signed in September 2018.

Ever since talks with former President Donald Trump in Hanoi ended in failure in 2019, North Korea has said that it would not participate in negotiations unless the U.S. offers concessions regarding sanctions and military training around the Korean Peninsula. Even though the Biden administration had attempted to reach out to North Korea through multiple channels, the country remained unresponsive to the call for dialogue, according to the White House.

This statement is the first message from North Korea to the Biden administration, which had vowed to review its policy on the country. North Korea released this statement immediately before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III began their visit to Japan and South Korea to deliberate issues including China’s growing influence and North Korea’s nuclear policies. In the statement, Kim Yo-jong warned, “If [the US] wants to sleep in peace for the coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”

Pyongyang harshly criticized the U.S.-South Korea annual joint military exercises as a rehearsal for invasion, saying that South Korea has crossed the “red line.” The U.S. and South Korea scaled down the exercises due to the pandemic, conducting them via computer simulation with fewer troops. However, North Korea claimed that the change in format does not change the hostile nature of the exercises. “War drills and hostility can never go with dialogue and cooperation,” Kim remarked.

Kim also indicated that North Korea could terminate the inter-Korean military agreement that Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in signed in September 2018 to end the military hostilities and work toward denuclearization. "We will keep an eye on the attitude and behavior of South Korea going forward and should it become more provocative, we could take special measures such as boldly scrap the inter-Korean military agreement," she expressed.

Analysts and U.S. officials are concerned that North Korea may start aggressive military actions. Shin Beom-chul, an analyst at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul, predicts, “They will start by launching conventional short-range missiles, probably thinking of going all the way to launching an intercontinental ballistic missile” to put pressure on the Biden administration. Glen VanHerck, the head of the U.S. military’s Northern Command, also expressed his concern about the possibility of North Korea’s missile tests in the near future. “Kim Jong-un may begin flight testing an improved ICBM design in the near future,” he remarked.