The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called the South Korean defense minister a “scandalous man” and warned that Seoul could face “serious threats” if it talks of a pre-emptive strike.
Kim Yoo-jung’s remarks came amid heightened tensions on the peninsula after Pyongyang conducted a weapons test this year. Launch of the first intercontinental ballistic missile in more than four years.
During a visit to the country’s Strategic Missile Command on Friday, South Korean Defense Minister Suu Kyi said that South Korea has the capability and preparedness to launch an accurate attack on the North if they detect an impending attack.
Seoul has long maintained a pre-objective military strategy to deal with it North Korea Growing missiles and the nuclear threat, but it was still too unusual for a senior official in Seoul under President Moon Jae-in’s administration to discuss it publicly.
In response, Kim’s sister said in a statement: “The ignorant and dirty man dares to refer to a ‘pre-emptive strike’ in the nuclear-armed state.
“South Korea could face serious threats because of the reckless remarks of its defense minister.
“South Korea must discipline itself if it wants to prevent a catastrophe.”
Kim Yoo-jung, a senior official with the ruling Workers’ Party in the north, is in charge of relations with Seoul and Washington.
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South Korea’s intelligence agency says he is the second-in-command of the North behind his brother.
Pak Jung Chon, a secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, separately warned that “any slight misconception or bad statement that could upset the other party in the current situation” could trigger a “dangerous conflict and a full-fledged war.”
Read more: The United States believes Pyongyang has launched intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Satellite images appear to show new activity at North Korea’s former nuclear test site
Mr Pak said that if South Korea launched a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, North Korea would “mercilessly direct military forces to destroy Seoul and the main targets of the South Korean military”.
There was a brief rift in the relationship in 2018 when North Korea moved toward the South and the United States and expressed a desire to put its nuclear program on the bargaining table.
He met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a brief detention in 2018
At that time, Kim Yoo Jung visited South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, and invited Mr. Moon to visit his brother in the North.
Kim Jong Un And Mr. Moon finally met three times in 2018.
But Pyongyang cooled down and severed ties with South Korea again in 2019 after its extensive diplomacy with the United States broke down over a dispute over US-led economic sanctions on the North.
