Kim Yo-Jong, an influential key officials and sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hurled a series of insults at US President Joe Biden accusing the 80-year-old occupant of the White House of endangering America with his “senility” and being incapable of serving through 2024, despite the fact, recently Biden has announced his reelection bid for 2024, and once he gets reelected, his tenure would end in 2028.
Kim Yo-Jong’s statement, released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), followed South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s visit to the United States during the last week of April.
The conservative Yoon Suk-Yeol had floated the possibility of developing nuclear weapons in 2023 after Kim Jong-Un announced an “exponential increase” in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. In the short term he was requesting the United States to again deploy nuclear weapons in the South to deter the North.
But despite a show of cordiality between close allies, Team Biden rebuffed Yoon’s request.
The US and South Korea published a landmark agreement branded the “Washington Declaration”, which resulted in Biden agreeing to send a nuclear submarine to South Korea in exchange for Yoon abandoning his public stance of potentially developing a South Korean nuclear weapons program.
Yoon Suk-Yeol had popular support for developing nuclear weapons after Kim Jong-Un announced an “exponential increase” in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. He said South Korea had the technology and expertise to quickly pursue that option.
The Washington Declaration stated: “President Yoon reaffirmed the ROK’s longstanding commitment to its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as the cornerstone of the global nonproliferation regime. The United States will further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, as evidenced by the upcoming visit of a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine to the ROK”.
Kim Yo-Jong seized on the weak US response telegraphed by the Washington Declaration, predicting that Biden will not be able to finish his first term. The promises in the Declaration, “provides us [North Korea] with an environment in which we are compelled to take more decisive action in order to deal with the new security environment”.
Kim Yo-Jong expressed particular outrage at Biden for stating that North Korea’s regime would cease to exist if it decided to use a nuclear weapon against South Korea or America.
“Look, a nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies or partisans — partners — is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime, were it to take such an action”, Biden said on April 26, 2033.
Kim Yo-Jong stated: “Another thing that we cannot let pass nor overlook is the fact that the chief executive of the enemy state officially and personally used the word ‘the end of regime’ under the eyes of the world. Would we simply regard it as the man’s senility? It may be taken as a nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage who is not at all capable of taking the responsibility for security and the future of the U.S., an old man with no future, as it is too much for him to serve out two-year remainder of his office term”.
KCNA continued its condemnation of America and South Korea, repeatedly referring to Yoon Suk-Yeol as a “puppet traitor”. The North Korean government propaganda outlet claimed that Yoon elicited “worldwide condemnation and ridicule for his visit to the US”, citing Chinese and Russian propaganda as evidence.
The Chinese state-run propaganda outlet Global Times stated: “To elevate the irregular nuclear dialogue mechanism to a regular one and to send Ohio-class nuclear submarines deployed in Guam to South Korea on a regular basis, it is more of a psychological comfort to South Korea, but for Northeast Asia, it is like inviting a wolf into the house”.
“Its hidden side – targeting China – is also a potential hazard for South Korea”, the editorial continued. “In the face of Yoon’s return from the U.S., clear-minded South Koreans will be concerned and cannot possibly be delighted”.
The Global Times went on to accuse Yoon of “likely” creating a “nuclear crisis”, language Beijing did not use for Kim Jong-Un’s speech in December announcing an “exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal”.
