North Korean leader’s sister warns South Korea over drone incidents

Influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, has accused South Korea of deliberately shirking responsibility for the reported incursions of South Korean drones over Pyongyang. 

She warned that a “terrible calamity” could occur if these actions persist, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.  

Her remarks followed a statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry, which claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korean propaganda were spotted over the capital on October 3 and from October 9-10. The ministry announced that North Korean forces would be ready to use “all means of attack” to target the southern border and the South Korean military, pledging to respond without warning if South Korean drones are detected in their airspace again.

Initially, South Korea’s defense minister rejected the allegations, but later the military revised its stance, stating it could not verify the North's claims. In comments released through state media, Kim Yo Jong, a key foreign policy advisor to her brother, argued that the South Korean military’s ambiguous statements indicated that it was “either the main culprit or complicit in this incident.”  

She stated, “If the military allowed its own citizens to use drones—a widely recognized multi-purpose military tool—to breach another country’s sovereignty, thus heightening the risk of armed conflict with a potential adversary, it would signify intentional collusion and complicity.” “The instant a South Korean drone is spotted again in the skies over our capital, a dire catastrophe is inevitable. I sincerely hope that this does not occur.”   South Korea’s military and government did not immediately respond to Kim’s remarks.

Tensions between the two Koreas have escalated to their highest levels in years, driven by an increase in North Korea’s missile tests and South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States. This hostility has been further fueled by Cold War-style psychological warfare tactics employed by both sides in recent months.

Since May, North Korea has launched thousands of balloons filled with paper waste, plastic, and other debris into South Korea, labeling it a response to South Korean civilian activists who sent balloons with anti-North Korean propaganda across the border.  

In reaction to this balloon campaign, South Korea’s military has employed loudspeakers at the border to broadcast propaganda and K-pop music into North Korea.   North Korea is highly sensitive to external criticism of its authoritarian regime under Kim Jong Un and his family's dynastic rule.  

South Korean officials have expressed concerns that North Korea may intensify its pressure on Seoul and Washington as the US presidential election approaches in November. 

Experts suggest that Kim’s long-term aim is to compel Washington to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power and to negotiate security and economic concessions from a position of strength.

By Naila Huseynova