AP – The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has derided South Korea’s conservative president for being “foolishly brave” but called his liberal predecessor “very smart” – rhetoric likely meant to help stoke domestic divisions in South Korea.
Her statement on Tuesday came as a response to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s New Year’s Day address, in which he said he would bolster South Korea’s military capability and enhance its alliance with the United States (US) to cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats.
Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has made such comments numerous times. Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, used Yoon’s latest remarks as an opportunity to fire off derisive rhetoric against him.
“This person … has persistently called for ‘peace by force’ and got hell-bent on the beefing up of the extended deterrence and the South Korea-US joint military exercises, thus putting the destiny of (South Korea) on the last extremity,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.
Some observers said she may be seeking to boost anti-Yoon sentiments in South Korea among those opposing his North Korea policy ahead of April’s parliamentary elections.
Kim Yo Jong said that Yoon’s “foolishly brave” stance and “fanatical military confrontation posture” have led to North Korea beefing up its military programmes.
She said Yoon’s New Year’s Day speech once again provided North Korea with a justification to obtain “more overwhelming nuclear fighting capability”.
Later she compared Yoon with his liberal predecessor, Moon Jae-in, calling the former South Korean president “very smart and crafty”.
She said that Moon’s appeasement policy left North Korea wasting time and failing to press forward with its arms buildup programmes.
She said Moon pleaded for North Korea to impose a moratorium on its missile and nuclear tests while bolstering South Korea’s own national security by procuring advanced US fighter jets and winning US consent in acquiring more powerful missiles.
But her praise of Moon contradicts earlier statements in which she and her government have previously berated him severely.
In 2021, she called Moon “a parrot raised by America” after he criticised North Korean missile tests. In 2019, in one of the most disdainful insults directed at Moon, an unidentified North Korean government committee spokesperson said that Moon’s comments hoping for better ties would make even the “boiled head of a cow break out into side-splitting laughter”.
Yesterday, Yoon’s Defence Ministry called Kim Yo Jong’s statement “an irrational claim and sophistry that makes no sense”. A ministry statement said South Korea’s military will strongly and swiftly punish any provocations by North Korea.
