South Korea should “discipline itself to stave off disaster”, Kim Yo Jong

North Korea will use its nuclear weapons to “eliminate” South Korea’s army in the event they launch a pre-emptive strike, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday. Kim Yo Jong’s warning, carried in state media, was her second angry retort in three days to comments made by South Korea’s defence chief Suh Wook last week. They come as North Korea has resumed its sanctions-breaking weapons tests with an unprecedented blitz this year, last month firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile at full range since 2017.

Suh had said Friday that South Korea’s military had missiles with “the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea when there are clear signs of North’s missile launch”. In response, Kim Yo Jong said it was a “very big mistake” for “lunatic” Suh to have discussed a pre-emptive strike against a nuclear power, according to the report in KCNA. “In case South Korea opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty,” said Kim Yo Jong, who is a key policy advisor in Pyongyang.

She said the "primary mission" for her country's nuclear forces was to act as a deterrent, but if an armed conflict were to break out, such weapons will be used for "eliminating the enemy's armed forces at a strike". As a result of this "dreadful attack", South Korean forces will face a "miserable fate little short of total destruction and ruin", she said.