U.S. should avoid ‘causing a stink’ if it wants peace, North Korea says

The sister of North Korean leader, Kim Yo Jong, criticized ongoing military drills in South Korea and warned the new U.S. administration against “causing a stink” if it wants peace, state news reported on Tuesday.

The statement comes a day before America’s top diplomat and defence chief are due to arrive in Seoul for their first talks with South Korean counterparts.

“We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off powder smell in our land,” Kim said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. “If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”

North Korea has so far rebuffed entreaties from the United States to engage in dialog, the White House said on Monday, as a chill in relations that began under then-President Donald Trump has extended into Joe Biden’s presidency.

Leader Kim Jong Un had three high-profile summit meetings with Trump and exchanged a series of letters, but the nuclear-armed state ended talks and said it would not engage further unless the United States drops its hostile policies.

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South Korean and American troops began a joint springtime military drill, which was limited to computer simulations because of the coronavirus risk as well as the ongoing efforts to engage with the North.

“War drills and hostility can never go with dialog and cooperation,” said Kim Yo Jong, who has become a vocal critic of Seoul in state media dispatches.

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She mocked South Korea for “resorting to shrunken war games, now that they find themselves in the quagmire of political, economic and epidemic crisis.”

The inter-Korean engagement that had improved in 2018 and is sought by South Korea “won’t come easily again” and North Korea will be watching to see if there is further provocations, she said.

North Korea would consider pulling out of an inter-Korean military agreement aimed at reducing tensions along their shared border, and would review whether to dissolve several organizations aimed at cooperation with the South, Kim said.