North Korea warns of stronger response to U.S.-led drills

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Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. File | Photo Credit: AP

North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, the influential ‌sister of leader Kim Jong Un, ​on Friday (September 18, 2026) blamed U.S.-led military ⁠drills for “ever-worsening” tensions on the Korean Peninsula and vowed no change in the country’s ‌course to strengthen its nuclear arsenal.

In a statement carried by state ‌media KCNA, Ms. Kim referred ‌to the ⁠Pacific Vanguard 2026 naval exercise ⁠near Guam, calling it another threatening U.S.-led “war game” and part of Washington’s efforts to expand military ​influence in the ‌Asia-Pacific region through cooperation with allies including South Korea and Japan.

She said the current situation highlighted the need ‌for North Korea to take responsive ​measures “proportional or more offensive in its nature” and warned that the ⁠country’s armed forces would “mobilize all means available” if its security or national interests ‌were violated.

The statement was Ms. Kim’s second in two days. On Thursday (September 17, 2026), she rejected renewed calls for North Korea’s denuclearisation at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference and reiterated Pyongyang’s position ‌that its status as a nuclear weapons ​state is irreversible.

Pacific Vanguard 2026, a multilateral exercise led by the ⁠U.S. Navy and involving the navies of South ⁠Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan in the vicinity ‌of Guam, ran from August 29 to September 10, according to Japan’s ​Maritime Self-Defence Force.

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