Iran Press/ Asia: Kim Yo Jong, who serves unofficially as one of Kim Jong Un’s top aides, issued the warning in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday.
“By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party, and the state, I gave an instruction to the department in charge of the affairs with (the) enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” she said, according to The Japan Times.
Her statement, which did not say what the next action could be, came days after South Korea took legal action against defectors who have been sending material such as rice and anti-North leaflets, usually by balloon over the heavily fortified border or in bottles by sea.
North Korea said it has been angered by the defectors and in the past week severed inter-Korean hotlines and threatened to close a liaison office between the two governments.
As part of the effort to improve ties with the North, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s administration has sought to discourage the leaflet and rice campaigns, and defectors have complained of pressure to avoid criticism of North Korea.
The escalation of tension comes a day ahead of the 20th anniversary of the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, which pledged increased dialogue and cooperation between the two states.
In 2018, the leaders of the two countries signed a declaration agreeing to work for the “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and cease “hostile acts.”
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