Kim Yo-jong mocked South Korea’s alliance with the US as “the relation between master and servant”
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, slammed Seoul as the “servant” of the US in a statement released Thursday on the abrupt reduction of joint US-South Korea military drills at the order of US President Donald Trump. “The plight of the ROK, which is compelled to stop the ‘war games’ it liked very much, is visualizing the structure of the relation between master and servant called the ‘US-ROK blood alliance’ of which they have boasted,” Kim said in a statement published on the state-run Korean Central News Agency that day, referring to South Korea by an abbreviated form of its official name. Noting that Trump had issued a sudden order to reduce the scale of the drills, Kim said Seoul could not “let out a single word of protest” at the “US chief executive’s unilateral order,” which made the US troops leave “without any mutual coordination.” “This is the inevitable fate of [a] puppet army,” she said of South Korea. The Ulchi Freedom Shield joint exercise, which began on Aug. 17, was scheduled to end on Aug. 27. Trump’s directive has drastically shortened the timeline so that it runs for five days instead of 11. Kim also criticized Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s attempts to court favor with the US. She mentioned how, despite “uttering shameless words” when lauding Trump’s “decisive rollback decision” as having been made with “deep consideration,” Lee immediately turned around to talk about “independent national defense and the buildup of military capabilities” to prepare for the “worst scenario.” Lee’s “double-dealing remarks” enabled the entire world to witness the “uneasiness and impatience of the ROK,” Kim continued. Kim declared that this event has exposed the “true situation of the ROK,” which she said has been bragging about its self-defense capabilities “despite its defence and security being under the care of outsiders.” Now, South Korea’s security has been “placed at stake due to a reduction of the joint military drill.” “[This turn of events] is an evident disaster brought by the unrealistic and anachronistic security outlook pursued by the ROK authorities,” Kim stated. “The ROK has reaped what it sowed.”By Goh Gyoung-ju, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
