Kim Yo Jong Blasts U.S. Drills and Vows a 'More Offensive' North Korean Response
Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused the United States of raising tensions through a steady run of military exercises and warned that Pyongyang would answer with a “more offensive” response, state media reported Friday.
The statement, carried by the Korean Central News Agency, marks the latest sharp rise in North Korean rhetoric as President Donald Trump seeks to revive diplomacy with Pyongyang. So far, those overtures have drawn little public response from the North, leaving talks at a standstill and raising the possibility of renewed friction.
Kim Yo Jong said the current phase—one she described as setting new records for hostile actions against the DPRK—demanded that North Korea set corresponding records in its response. The DPRK is the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.
She characterized recent joint military drills by U.S. forces and regional allies in the Asia-Pacific as a “US-led war rehearsal.” North Korea, she said, would defend its sovereignty with “clearer action” and would never waver in expanding its nuclear war deterrent.
“I remind the enemy once again that if it is judged that the supreme interests of our nation and its military sovereignty and security environment in the region have been seriously violated by their military maneuvers,” North Korea’s military would “mobilize all means available to cope with it,” she said.
The comments followed a separate, sharply worded statement a day earlier in which Kim mocked those who want North Korea to give up its nuclear program. “The DPRK’s position as a nuclear weapons state is absolute which can not reverse with anything,” she said.
Her remarks came as the International Atomic Energy Agency held its general conference in Vienna, where she dismissed denuclearization efforts as “familiar silly talk.” “If they believe that it is really possible, they will only hear the word of idiots,” she added.
North Korea has codified its status as a nuclear-armed state in law, and its leadership has declared the arsenal permanent and irreversible. The stance has effectively ruled out the kind of denuclearization-for-relief formula that collapsed during the second Trump-Kim summit in 2019.
Estimates of the North’s nuclear stockpile vary. Trump recently said Pyongyang possesses 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, while Seoul has put the figure at between 80 and 120. The arsenal is believed to have grown since the 2019 summit ended without an agreement over what Pyongyang would receive in exchange for steps toward denuclearization.
With diplomacy stalled, Kim Yo Jong’s latest warning underscores how difficult it will be for Washington to restart talks without addressing Pyongyang’s demands and its refusal to discuss giving up nuclear weapons. It also signals that North Korea is likely to keep pressure on Washington and its allies, maintaining elevated tensions across the Korean Peninsula and the broader region.