Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, speaks in Pyongyang, according to this undated photo from the state-run Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA)
The North Korean leader’s influential sister has dismissed the South’s recent calls for dialogue and urged her country’s diplomats to prepare for “preemptive counteraction,” state media reported Wednesday.
Kim Yo Jong, a senior official on the State Affairs Commission, called South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s push for improved ties a “pipe dream,” according to a statement published by the Korean Central News Agency.
She accused Lee or trying to create an “amicable image” while hosting a large-scale military exercise with the United States.
U.S. airmen conduct pre-flight checks during an Ulchi Freedom Shield drill at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Aug. 18, 2025. (Jason Cochran/U.S. Air Force)
The allies began the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield on Monday, involving about 20 field drills across South Korea. Washington and Seoul describe the training as routine and defensive, while Pyongyang routinely condemns the maneuvers as invasion rehearsals.
Kim said Lee’s outreach while conducting military drills highlights South Korea’s double standards, declaring Seoul “cannot be a diplomatic partner” for the North.
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification responded Wednesday, saying in an emailed statement that “it is important to respect each other” to achieve peace.
The ministry said Lee’s administration seeks stability and prosperity for both Koreas and pledged to move past as “era of confrontation and competition” to a “new era of peaceful coexistence and co-development.”
Lee has vowed to gradually rebuild relations, starting with restoring a military agreement both countries abandoned last year. His predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, suspended the 2018 Comprehensive Military Agreement in June 2024 after North Korea conducted missile tests and floated trash-filled balloons across the border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un withdrew from the accord entirely seven months earlier, citing the need to bolster his country’s border defenses.
Separately, KCNA reported Tuesday that Kim inspected the North’s newest destroyer, the Choe Hyon, at a shipyard in Nampo. During the visit, he accused the U.S. and South Korea of seeking to “ignite a war” through the Ulchi drills and called for a “rapid expansion of nuclearization.”
