Kim Yo Jong criticizes US-South Korean military drills

March 18, 2021 On Monday,, vice department director of the Central Committee of the and sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, warned the United States and South Korea as a reaction to the joint military drills conducted by the US and South Korea.

In a statement released by the, Kim Yo Jong said: "The peaceful spring days of three years ago are unlikely to return". asserted the "peaceful spring" refers to the inter-Korean meetings held in April 2018. In her statement, Kim described 'the south Korean authorities' as "all born with stupidity" and "become the dumb and deaf bereft of judgment". In response to the drills &mdash; which the North Korean government reportedly perceived as a threat &mdash; Kim expressed the possibility of closing various inter-Korean organizations like the and the Kumgangsan International Tourism Bureau. "We also examine the issue of dissolving the Kumgangsan International Tourism Bureau and other organizations concerned as any cooperation and exchange with the south Korean authorities antagonizing us are no longer necessary", Kim said.

Towards the end of the statement, Kim said, "If it [the United States] wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step."

Speaking to Arirang News, Yang Moo-Jin, the vice president for public affairs at the, said the message indicates "the regime is willing to talk [...] as long as the South [Korean authorities] show some sincerity by not raising tensions through the joint drills". Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at the, said the North "is reaffirming its long-held stance that there will be no talks unless sanctions against the regime are lifted". In an interview with Arirang News,, the director of the Korea Risk Group, said the message is nothing out of the ordinary, and similar messages have been coming each spring and the contents of this message are not to be overestimated. He qualified the statement as being "business as usual" and "by the North Korean standards it's pretty tame".