​​​​​​​ISTANBUL

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, slammed an upcoming joint military drill between South Korea and the US, through the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday.

Kim, who serves as a vice department director in the North’s ruling party, said the “reckless show of strength” could lead to negative consequences.

The allies are scheduled to hold the Iron Mace tabletop drill from Monday to Friday at US Forces Korea headquarters in Camp Humphreys, in the western South Korean city of Pyeongtaek.

The training will focus on coordinating US nuclear capabilities with South Korea’s conventional forces to counter North Korean threats.

South Korea, the US and Japan will also carry out the Freedom Edge exercise, a joint multi-domain drill in international waters southeast of South Korea’s Jeju Island.

Kim denounced the allies’ nuclear deterrence strategy as a “dangerous idea” and warned that Pyongyang would see the exercise as evidence of the “present rulers” hostile posture if carried out.

"I remind the US, Japan and the ROK (South Korea) that the reckless show of strength made by them in real action in the vicinity of the DPRK (North Korea), which is the wrong place, will inevitably bring bad results to themselves,” she said.

It will be the third Iron Mace exercise since its launch under the Nuclear Consultative Group, created after an April 2023 summit between former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and ex-US President Joe Biden.

It will be the first held under South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump, who have both sought renewed dialogue with North Korea.