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North Korea said Tuesday it will use nuclear weapons in retaliation for any South Korean attack, with Kim Yo Jong — the powerful sister of Pyongyang dictator Kim Jong Un — insisting that the totalitarian nation does not want a war.
The warning — published by state propaganda agency KCNA — followed recent comments from South Korea Defense Minister Suh Wook about potential preemptive strikes, which Kim Yo Jong called a “fantastic daydream” and the “hysteria of a lunatic.”
Suh revealed Friday that South Korea’s military has “the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea.”
In response, the North Korean leader’s sister has warned that if her nation retaliates with nuclear force, it would leave their southern enemy’s military “little short of total destruction and ruin.”
“If South Korea, for any reason — whether or not it is blinded by misjudgment — opts for such military action as ‘preemptive strike’ touted by [Suh], the situation will change,” Kim Yo Jong said. “In that case, South Korea itself will become a target.”
Kim initially criticized the Seoul defense minister’s comments on Sunday, warning that North Korea would take action against major targets if the South launched any “dangerous military action.”
Some experts believe Kim’s warning is aimed at South Korean President-elect Yoon Su Yeol, who has called for a tougher line against North Korea.
“Yoon’s ‘preemptive strike’ comment made the headlines a few months ago, and Pyongyang is seizing Suh’s remarks to make a point to the incoming South Korean administration,” Rachel Minyoung Lee, an analyst with the US-based 38 North project, told Reuters.
“North Korea has thus far refrained from criticizing Yoon at any authoritative level, but it certainly seems to be laying the groundwork for it.”
The warning comes as fears grow over recent long-range ballistic missile tests in North Korea, which the White House labeled “a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.”
Last week, Pyongyang announced it successfully test-fired a Hwasong-17 missile that was capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and hitting the US mainland.
Soon after, however, South Korean military officials claimed that both Seoul and Washington believed the missile was actually a Hwasong-15 — an intercontinental ballistic missile test-fired in 2017 that is also able to hit the US.
The Biden administration blasted the recent missile launches, saying it “demonstrates that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name] continues to prioritize its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people.”
Despite the rhetoric, the White House insists Biden is open to meeting with Kim Jong Un “when there is a serious agreement on the table, which would need to be based on working-level negotiations,” as a senior US official put it last month.
“Because as we saw in the past administration, leader-level summits alone are no guarantee of progress,” the official added. “The DPRK continues to not respond.”
With Post wires
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