Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.
Jorge Silva | Reuters
WASHINGTON – The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a grisly message to the United States on Tuesday as officials from the Biden government arrive for high-level talks in Japan and South Korea.
“We take this opportunity to warn the new US administration that is doing its best to propagate [gun] powder smell in our country, ” said Kim Yo Jong in a statement referring to joint US and South Korean military exercises in the region.
“If it [the U.S.] If you want to sleep in peace for the next four years, it better refrain from causing stench on the first step, ” she added, according to an English translation.
Kim’s comments, carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, are the first reactions from Pyongyang since Biden held the presidency and coincided with the arrival of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in the region.
Blinken and Austin, on their first trip abroad led by Biden, arrived in Japan on Tuesday and will travel to South Korea on Wednesday. The pair plan to reaffirm US pledges in the region and discuss ongoing security challenges, including North Korea.
“To mitigate the risks of escalation, we contacted North Korean government channels, including in New York, from mid-February. To date, we have not received a response from Pyongyang,” Blinken said at a news conference Tuesday. “This follows more than a year without active dialogue with North Korea, despite several attempts by the United States.”
Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of Defense, left, and Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, wear protective face masks at the Japan-US Security Consultative Committee (SCC) meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday 16 March 2021.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty images
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on the Biden government not to give up on the crippling economic pressure on North Korea.
“I hope this government will engage with North Korea in the same massive sanctions regime that we have that put real pressure on President Kim to come to the table,” Pompeo told Fox Business on Sunday. “We’ve made good progress. We didn’t quite come. We got them to stop testing long-range missiles, a big problem for the United States of America and our security,” he added.
The Trump administration made some initial progress with North Korea, but negotiations broke down more than a year ago after the US refused to grant sanctions in exchange for Pyongyang’s decommissioning of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
The Biden administration has unsuccessfully tried to resume nuclear talks with North Korea.
Led by third-generation North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the retired state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into waters near Guam’s U.S. territory.
Since 2011, Kim has launched more than 100 missiles and conducted four nuclear weapons tests, which is more than what his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched over a 27-year period.