North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong stated the annual ‘Freedom Protect’ workouts may result in ‘unimaginably horrible penalties’.
Revealed On 10 Mar 2026
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean chief Kim Jong Un, has accused the US and South Korea of “destroying the soundness” of East Asia, as the 2 nations begin their annual 10-day joint army workouts on the Korean Peninsula.
“The muscle-flexing of the hostile forces close to the areas of our state’s sovereignty and safety could trigger unimaginably horrible penalties,” Kim Yo Yong stated on Tuesday, in keeping with the state-run Korean Central Information Company (KCNA).
Advisable Tales
record of 4 gadgetsfinish of record
“The enemies ought to by no means attempt to take a look at our endurance, will and functionality,” Kim stated.
“We are going to watch to what extent the enemy violates the safety of our state and what it’s taking part in at,” she continued.
Kim’s remarks comply with the beginning of the joint Freedom Protect workouts on Monday, which can run for 10 days and contain 18,000 South Korean and US army personnel.
The army manoeuvres are designed to “improve the mixed, joint, all-domain, and interagency operational surroundings, thereby strengthening the Alliance’s response capabilities,” United States Forces Korea stated.
This yr’s Freedom Protect will contain 22 area coaching drills, in keeping with South Korea’s Yonhap Information Company, which is fewer than half the quantity carried out final yr.
Kim added on Tuesday that there was no justification to carry the workouts, which have been known as a “defensive” motion by Washington and Seoul previously.
“It doesn’t matter what justification they could set up and the way the weather of the drill could also be coordinated, the clear confrontational nature of the high-intensity large-scale conflict drill staged by essentially the most hostile entities in collusion on the doorstep of [North Korea] by no means modifications,” she stated.
“The current international geopolitical disaster and complex worldwide occasions show that every one army manoeuvres of the sphere warfare troops, to be performed by the enemy states, assume no distinction between defence and assault, coaching and precise warfare,” she continued, in an obvious reference to the US-Israel conflict on Iran.
South Korea and North Korea have technically been at conflict since 1953, when an armistice settlement paused preventing however didn’t formally finish the armed confrontation.
North Korean chief Kim Jong Un stated in 2024 that he would not pursue reconciliation with South Korea, though it stays Seoul’s long-term aim.
An official at South Korea’s Ministry of Unification advised Yonhap that Kim’s remarks on Tuesday had been comparatively muted by North Korean requirements.
The assertion didn’t refer on to the US or threaten to make use of nuclear weapons, the official stated, talking on situation of anonymity.
“Kim seems to have restricted her response to merely pinpointing the South Korea-US train, taking the present safety scenario under consideration,” the official advised Yonhap.
