The comments, North Korea’s first threats against President Joe Biden’s new government, are reminiscent of the fiery rhetoric Pyongyang directed at Washington in the early months of the Trump administration and are likely to affect discussions this week in Seoul between Austin, Blinken and its South Korean counterparts.
While North Korea’s continuing threat to the region was a major topic of discussion during the Tokyo meetings, the main focus was to contain China’s rise. During the joint meetings, the Japanese authorities expressed their concern about the growing threat from China to Taiwan and the disputed Senkaku Islands. Austin relayed to his Japanese counterpart that the Biden administration communicated its concerns about Beijing’s aggressive actions directly to the Chinese government, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive meetings.
As Austin and Blinken head to Seoul, talks are expected to include the North Korean threat, especially after Kim Yo Jong’s comments.
The South Korean and American military began its last annual exercises last week, which Pyongyang sees as an act of hostility towards the North, although this year’s event has been reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Trump administration cut back on military exercises with South Korea following the historic summit of the former president in Singapore with Kim Jong Un in 2018 and continued minor events over the past three years.
Although Pyongyang halted its tests of long-range ballistic and nuclear missiles as part of the Singapore agreement, it has continued to develop and display new advanced weapons, according to a second senior defense official.
Blinken declined to comment on Kim Yo Jong’s statements during a joint press conference on Tuesday, rather than pointing to Washington’s strong partnership with Tokyo as support for Chinese and North Korean threats.
The Biden government in February began contacting the North Korean government “through several channels”, but has not yet received a response, said Blinken, confirming a report from Reuters.
A Pentagon spokesman also declined to comment on the statement or the status of military exercises.
In his statement, Kim Yo Jong also threatened to abandon a 2018 bilateral agreement to reduce military tensions with Seoul and abolish a decades-old unit charged with dealing with inter-Korean relations.
“Let’s keep an eye out [South Korea’s] attitude and behavior, and if they become more provocative, we could take exceptional measures, ”she said in her statement, published in the official Pyongyang Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
In response to Kim’s comments, a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman defended joint exercises as defensive in nature and called on the North to show a “more flexible attitude”.