N. Korea swipes at South’s leader
Kim’s sister calls Moon U.S. ‘parrot’ for criticizing test-firing
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Tuesday called South Korea’s president “a parrot raised by America,” resuming its trademark derisive rhetoric against its rivals as animosities flare again on the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued the latest verbal salvo after South Korean President Moon Jae-in criticized the North’s missile launches last week. She said Moon’s “illogical and brazen-faced” comments echoed the U.S. stance.
“We can hardly repress astonishment at his shamelessness,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the North’s state media outlets. “He cannot feel sorry for being ‘praised’ as a parrot raised by America.”
Seoul’s Unification Ministry expressed “strong regret” over her statement, saying that the two Koreas must observe “the rules of minimum etiquette in any circumstance.”
Kim Yo Jong once enjoyed an image of “a peace messenger” in South Korea after she visited Seoul and conveyed Moon her brother’s invitation to visit Pyongyang in early 2018. But since ties turned strained again
later, she’s taken the lead in anti-Seoul rhetoric.
The United States, South Korea and others condemned North Korea over its firings of two ballistic missile launches into the sea, the first such weapons tests in a year. North Korea has argued it has sovereign rights to perform such weapons tests to cope with U.S. military threats. But U.N. Security Council resolutions ban ballistic missile and nuclear tests by North Korea which they say pose a threat to international peace.
On Saturday, Ri Pyong Chol, a top deputy to Kim Jong Un, called President Joe Biden’s criticism of the North’s missile tests a provocation and encroachment on the North’s right to self-defense. Ri said it was “gangster-like logic” for Washington to criticize the North’s launches while the U.S. freely tested intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Biden administration said Monday it’s looking at “additional actions” that the United Nations might take.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the U.N., wasn’t specific about what those actions might entail.
Meanwhile, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will be meeting in Washington soon with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea to discuss North Korea strategy as the administration finalizes a review of how to approach the country. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who recently returned from Tokyo and Seoul, said the three countries are united in dealing with the challenges posed by Pyongyang.
“What we’re seeing from Pyongyang in terms of these provocations does nothing to shake the resolve of our three countries along with allies and partners around the world to approach North Korea from a position of strength in order to diminish the threat that it poses to the region and beyond,” Blinken said.