SEOUL – North Korea issued its first warning shot against the Biden government on Tuesday, denouncing Washington for conducting joint military exercises with South Korea and for causing “a stink” on the Korean peninsula.
North Korea released its statement hours before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III began meeting officials in Japan ahead of a trip to South Korea later this week. The visits were intended to strengthen alliances in the region, where the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and the growing influence of China were seen as major foreign policy challenges.
The statement was the first official comment on the North Korean Biden government.
“We are taking this opportunity to warn the new US administration that is trying hard to give off a powdery smell in our country,” said Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in a statement from the North Korean state Media on Tuesday. “If it wants to sleep in peace for the next four years, it should be better not to cause a smell the first step.”
Ms. Kim’s statement was the first indication that North Korea has plans to sway the new administration’s policies by increasing the prospect of renewed tension on the peninsula, analysts said.
“Kim Yo-jong’s statement was a press release to the United States and South Korea,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “As senior officials meet in Seoul this week to discuss their North Korea policy, the North warns them to choose wisely between dialogue and confrontation.”
Ms. Kim, who serves as her brother’s spokesperson on North Korea’s relations with Seoul and Washington, devoted most of her statement to criticizing Seoul for pushing ahead with the month’s annual military exercises with the United States, despite her brother’s warnings.
Mr. Blinken and Mr. Austin were due to fly to South Korea on Wednesday to meet with President Moon Jae-in and other senior South Korean leaders. Dealing with North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats is high on the agenda. During a meeting with officials in Tokyo, Blinken said the United States would work with allies to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and that “one element of that is the denuclearization of North Korea.”
The Biden administration has announced that it will undertake a comprehensive review of American policy towards North Korea. Since the collapse of talks with former President Donald J. Trump in 2019, Mr Kim has said there is no point in continuing negotiations unless Washington first offered terms his country could accept. This includes the lifting of sanctions and the ending of US military exercises in the Korean peninsula in exchange for steps towards denuclearization.
The Biden government has tried to reach North Korea through multiple channels for the past few weeks, but Pyongyang has not responded, according to the White House. Analysts said the silence was part of the north’s printing tactics.
“The allies have little time to coordinate their approaches to deterrence, sanctions and engagement,” said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
In her statement, Ms. Kim accused South Korea of opting for “March War” and “March Crisis” instead of “March Warmth” by launching joint military exercises that the North has labeled as rehearsals for the invasion.
Under Mr. Trump, Washington and Seoul suspended or scaled back joint military exercises to support diplomacy with Mr. Kim. After three meetings, Mr Trump’s talks with Mr Kim collapsed with no agreement on how to end North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile capabilities.
Still, the United States and South Korea have significantly reduced the scope of this year’s spring military exercise and run it as a computer simulation with little troop movement. South Korea said the exercise had been minimized this year due to the pandemic and a desire to keep the diplomatic dynamic with North Korea alive. She urged the North to become “more flexible” and not create tension, as has often happened in response to the annual exercises.
On Tuesday, Ms. Kim called South Korea’s diplomatic aspirations “ridiculous, cheeky and stupid”. She warned that North-South Korean relations would continue to deteriorate as Seoul crossed a “red line”.
“War exercises and hostilities can never go hand in hand with dialogue and cooperation,” she said. “They will bring a biting wind in the spring days of March that is not expected by everyone.”
She did not elaborate on what the “biting wind” would mean. However, she indicated that North Korea could potentially abolish its Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country, saying that the ruling Labor Party organization, which focuses on dialogue with the South, “has no reason to exist”. She also warned that North Korea might consider denouncing a joint North-South Korean military agreement that Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon signed in 2018 during a short-lived rapprochement.
North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office last year, ending the entire official dialogue with Seoul. Speaking at the Congress in January, Mr. Kim warned that the return of inter-Korean relations to a “point of peace and prosperity” would depend on South Korea’s conduct. North Korea has accused Seoul of failing to convince the United States to make concessions for Pyongyang or to improve inter-Korean economic relations, regardless of Washington’s wishes.
After his meetings with Mr. Trump failed to lift the sanctions, Mr. Kim vowed to continue advancing his country’s nuclear capabilities. At the convention, he said North Korea would build new solid fuel ICBMs and make its nuclear warheads lighter and more precise.
Analysts have been watching North Korea closely for the past week to see if it would provoke Washington by conducting missile or other weapons tests before Mr Blinken and Mr Austin arrive in Asia.
So far this has not happened.
“Kim Jong-un’s top priority right now is home. It is focused on business and improving people’s lives,” said Yang, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
The North Korean economy was devastated by the pandemic. And Mr Kim, who has admitted his economic policy has failed, said he had focused on building a “self-contained” economy in the face of international sanctions.
But even if North Korea didn’t greet Mr. Blinken and Mr. Austin with a missile test, Ms. Kim’s testimony signaled that the country expects the Biden administration to act lightly. North Korea is likely to build up tensions soon for leverage, said Shin Beom-chul, an analyst at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul.
“They will launch short-range conventional missiles first and will likely consider launching an ICBM,” Shin said. “You are pressuring the Biden administration to make concessions while it reviews US policy towards North Korea.”
Lara Jakes contributed to coverage from Tokyo.
