By Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un, criticised the Trump administration for stepping up “provocations” and said it justified the nuclear state increasing its nuclear deterrent, state media KCNA said.
Kim denounced the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson’s visit to South Korea on Sunday, saying the action was part of a “policy of confrontation” against North Korea.
“As soon as its new administration appeared this year, the U.S. has stepped up the political and military provocations against the DPRK, ‘carrying forward’ the former administration’s hostile policy,” Kim said, according to Tuesday’s KCNA report.
DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Hostile policy toward the DPRK pursued by the U.S. at present is offering sufficient justification for the DPRK to indefinitely bolster … its nuclear war deterrent,” Kim added.
South Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that Kim Yo Jong’s comments were nothing more than deception to justify its nuclear missile development.
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons are never acceptable, and the only way for North Korea to survive is to abandon its obsession and delusion about nuclear (weapons),” the ministry said in a statement.
South Korea’s navy said on Sunday the U.S. aircraft carrier arrived at the southern port city of Busan in South Korea as a show of force against North Korea.
The nuclear-powered Carl Vinson is the first U.S. aircraft carrier to dock at a South Korean port since Trump’s second term in office began in January.
Kim Yo Jong also criticised the deployment of U.S. B-1B strategic bombers over the Korean peninsula as part of joint drills with the U.S. and Japan, as well as slamming a pledge by the three allies made at a security conference in Munich in February that called for the denuclearisation of the North.
Trump held unprecedented summits with the North Korean leader during his first term and has touted their personal rapport. The U.S. president has said he would reach out to Kim Jong Un again.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Sandra Maler and Ed Davies)
