N.Korea leader’s sister blasts US drills, threatens ‘more offensive’ response

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(FILES) Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, attends a reception in the Great Hall of People following a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on September 3, 2025. The Workers’ Party Central Committee on February 23, 2026, named Kim Yo Jong — previously a deputy department director — as a full department director, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. (Photo by Jade Gao / AFP)

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The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accused the United States of escalating regional tensions through frequent military drills and warned of a “more offensive” response from Pyongyang, according to a statement published by state media Friday.

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“The present situation, in which new records are set in terms of practical action hostile toward the DPRK, stresses the need to break records in our responsive action, proportional or more offensive in its nature,” the KCNA news agency quoted Kim Yo Jong as saying, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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Referring to joint military drills held in recent months by US forces and allies in the Asia-Pacific region as a “US-led war rehearsal,” Kim vowed that “our will to defend our sovereignty will be expressed in clearer action and there will be never ever change in the course of intensifying the nuclear war deterrence.”

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“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,” Kim went on, North Korea’s military will “mobilize all means available to cope with it.”

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AFP

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