Kim Yo-Jong Blasts US-S. Korea Deal
North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong lobbed insults at President Biden after he met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Washington this week. There they issued the “Washington Declaration” to bolster US nuclear deterrence. The deal will involve “regular deployment of strategic assets.” This deal includes a US nuclear ballistic submarine’s first South Korean port visit in decades.
Deal Warns of Risks
Kim Yo-jong, sister of Kim Jong Un and the murderous regime’s chief propagandist and internal administrator. Her threat rhetoric this week in response to a new US-South Korea agreement designed to bolster Seoul’s defenses. Kim Yo-jong said the Washington Declaration would “lead to more danger” for North Korea.
Her statement follows a diatribe she launched in August against South Korea’s defense minister. Where she called him a “senseless and scum-like person” for his efforts to strengthen the South’s defenses with allied military drills.
Experts say Kim is taking a harder line to signal to the world that the North is not interested in denuclearization talks or a peace treaty with the United States until it gets sanctions relief for its nuclear program. The rogue regime has spent years honing its weaponry, and last year it declared itself an “irreversible nuclear power.”
The North’s recent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile was widely viewed as a violation of international agreements. US officials have reaffirmed that the ICBM can reach the US mainland with a payload of up to 4,000 pounds. The ICBM launch also raised eyebrows in the UN. This is because Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the North that it was raising tensions with its neighbors and allies with its actions. In response, the North’s vice-foreign ministry called the US for violating the UN Security Council resolutions.
It’s difficult to imagine any sustainable engagement between the North and the West until this dynamic changes. And given that China’s economic ties to the North are the lever that can force change, Beijing must make clear to Pyongyang that it will not be willing to resume negotiations until its partners stop treating it like a predatory enemy.
The Center for American Progress’ Asia team, led by Heungkyu Kim, a professor at Ajou University. It is part of a more significant issue brief series on a progressive vision for the U.S.-South Korea alliance.
