The powerful sister of North Korea’s leader slammed the United States and South Korea on Tuesday over ongoing joint military drills, in the first remarks by a high-level regime official aimed at the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
“We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off (a gunpowder) smell in our land,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim Yo Jong as saying. “If it wants to sleep in peace for (the) coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step.”
The warning came as the U.S. secretaries of state and defense made their first visit abroad, traveling to Tokyo for so-called two-plus-two talks with their counterparts on the alliance’s role in maintaining security in the region. North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs were high atop the agenda, officials said.