Pyongyang has ‘no interest’ in Trump’s cut to SK-US military drills, says Kim Yo-jong

Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, serves as a senior official in the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. (KCNA/Yonhap)

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said on Wednesday that Pyongyang has “no interest” in US President Donald Trump’s unexpected order to scale back the US’ joint military exercises with South Korea. She was also apparently unimpressed by Trump’s claims about communicating with Kim Jong-un, declaring that she was “not aware of it at all.”Kim, who serves in a senior role in North Korea’s ruling party, expressed her stance on “major international affairs” in a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday evening.“As for the reduction of the US-ROK joint military drill abruptly announced by the US president a few days ago, we regard it as the one unworthy of comment and have no interest in it at all,” Kim said.“The reduction of the scale and duration of the drill does not mean [a change in] the nature of the military drill [that is] provocative and offensive,” she said. “We are paying more attention to the fact that the joint military drills between the US and the ROK [. . .] are still under way [. . .] and we [correctly see] through the fact that this is an obvious expression of their obvious hostility toward the DPRK,” she went on.ROK and DPRK are acronyms for the official names of South and North Korea, respectively.“As for the news from Washington that [not long] ago, there was a communication between the leaders of the DPRK and the US, I am not aware of it at all, and perhaps it may be the only thing I do not know as regards the foreign policy of our supreme leadership,” Kim said.This amounted to a flat contradiction of Trump’s claim on Monday that Kim Jong-un had accepted his proposal for dialogue.But Kim added the caveat that she “had already clarified several times that our head of state has good memories and feelings about Trump personally. The relationship between those two leaders is still excellent.”“However, the US hostile policy toward the DPRK has remained unchanged,” she said.“Likewise, I would like to stress that the exercise of the sovereign rights of the DPRK intended to contain the forces threatening its security is very reasonable, appropriate and essential and it has nothing to do with the excellent relations between the leaders of the two countries,” she went on.By Jang Ye-ji, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]