Edited by Deepali Verma
South Korea accused Pyongyang on January 7 of firing artillery shells near its sea boundary for a third straight day in context of a provocative statement from Kim Yo Jong, the sister and key ally of North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un, threatening to launch a military strike immediately in response to any provocation.
Having strongly urged North Korea to press pause on the provocative acts or face an overwhelming, stern response, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang shot more than 90 rounds close to the disputed western sea boundary on the afternoon of January 7. Previously, South Korea’s military reported more than 60 rounds of artillery fired onJanuary 6, a day after launching more than 200 shells.
Jong, mocked Seoul’s ability to determine its weapons launch, and said that the Pyongyang army on January 6 detonated blasting powder simulating the sound of its coastal artillery on the seashore in order to test the South Korean military’s detection capabilities.
“The result was as we expected. They misjudged the blasting sound as the sound of gunfire and considered it as a provocation. And they even made a false statement that the shells dropped north” of the sea boundary, Jong mentioned in a statement that was featured by the state news agency KCNA.
“I cannot but say South Korean people are extremely pitiful as they entrust security to such blind persons as they offer huge taxes to them,” Jong said, adding that “It is 10 times better to entrust security to a dog with a proper, developed sense of hearing as well as smell.”
In response to the artillery firings by North Korea, Seoul Friday carried out its own firing exercises. The artillery shells launched by the rival nations fell at a maritime buffer zone that was established under a 2018 military agreement aiming to ease front-line military tensions.
Experts are of the opinion that Pyongyang is likely to ramp up weapons tests and increase its trademark fiery rhetoric against its rivals ahead of South Korea’s parliamentary elections in April and the US presidential elections in November. As per the reports of AP, Kim Jong Un likely thinks that a bolstered weapons arsenal would allow him to wrest greater US concessions when diplomacy resumes.
Jong was vocal about South Korea’s military being “gangsters” and “clowns in military uniforms.” She additionally stated that Seoul’s possible future miscalculation of North Korean moves could be responsible for an accidental clash between the rivals, jeopardising the safety of Seoul, a city of 10 million people that happens to be only an hour’s drive from the land border.
In the week gone by, Jong issued a statement calling South Korean conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol “foolishly brave” but his liberal predecessor Moon Jae-in “very smart.”
