Kim Yo-jong Mocks South Korea's 'Pitiful Plight,' Criticizes President Lee's 'Dual Behavior'

[Anchor]

North Korea's Workers' Party Vice Department Director Kim Yo-jong has reacted to the scaling back of South Korea-U.S. joint military drills, claiming that South Korea has been placed in a "pitiful plight." Without making any additional remarks regarding U.S. President Trump, she instead shifted her criticism toward President Lee Jae-myung, accusing him of duplicitous words and actions.

Reporter Kim Ayeong has the details.

[Reporter]

North Korea's Workers' Party Vice Department Director Kim Yo-jong issued a late-night statement yesterday, following a similar statement the day before yesterday (August 19).

In the statement, Kim Yo-jong claimed that due to President Trump's directive to scale back the drills, "Seoul has been placed in a pitiful plight where it must give up its favorite 'war game,'" arguing that South Korea's situation clearly illustrates the subordinate nature of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.

Kim also lashed out, asserting that this unexpected situation is a "disaster" and retribution brought about by the South Korean authorities' unrealistic security views, who she claimed had tried to alter the balance of power while falling into blind faith in the United States.

She also turned her fire toward President Lee Jae-myung, explicitly mentioning him by name for criticism.

Referring to President Lee's social media post expressing respect for President Trump regarding the scaling back of the exercises, she argued that South Korea is showing duplicitous behavior by simultaneously talking about self-reliant defense and securing independent military capabilities on the other hand.

She further claimed that such words and actions reveal South Korea's unstable, anxious, and contradictory psychology.

Kim's latest statement appears to elevate the level of vitriol against the South Korean government, which is interpreted as North Korea drawing a hard line to signal that South Korea has no room to intervene in President Trump's card of scaling down joint exercises.

Meanwhile, North Korea fired more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area toward the East Sea.

This marks the ballistic missile launch in eight days, and analysts assess that it was intended as a show of force against the South Korea-U.S. joint exercises running through today.

(Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.