North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong slams US-South Korea nuclear pact, calls Biden a ‘fool’
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has lashed out at a new US-South Korea agreement to step up nuclear deterrence against the North, calling it a demonstration of their “extreme” hostility and vowing more provocative military displays by Pyongyang.
Kim Yo Jong also hurled personal insults at US President Joe Biden, who said on Wednesday following a meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol that any nuclear strike by North Korea against the US or its allies would “result in the end of whatever regime” took such action.
Biden’s meeting with Yoon in Washington came amid heightened tensions in the Korean Peninsula as the North has test-fired around 100 missiles since the start of 2022, including multiple demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland and a slew of short-range launches the North described as simulated nuclear strikes on South Korea.
During their summit, Biden and Yoon announced new nuclear deterrence efforts that call for periodically docking US nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea for the first time in decades and bolstering training between the two countries. They also committed to plans for bilateral presidential consultations in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, the establishment of a nuclear consultative group and improved sharing of information on nuclear and strategic weapons operation plans.
In her comments published on state media, Kim Yo Jong said the US-South Korea agreement reflected the allies’ “most hostile and aggressive will of action” against the North and will push regional peace and security into “more serious danger.”
Kim, who is one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said that the summit further strengthened the North’s conviction to enhance its nuclear arms capabilities.
She also mocked Biden as a “fool” who is “ignorant of reality” and said he was “making a fuss” about North Korea’s missile tests.