North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister, top communist official Kim Yo-jong, lobbed a barrage of insults at American President Joe Biden in a screed this weekend accusing him of endangering America with his “senility” and being incapable of serving through 2024.
Kim Yo-jong’s statement, published through the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), was meant as a response to conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s visit to the United States last week. Yoon and Biden, whose policies have often been at odds since the conservative president took office in 2022, published a landmark agreement branded the “Washington Declaration,” which resulted in Biden agreeing to send a nuclear submarine to South Korea in exchange for Yoon abandoning his public stance of potentially developing a South Korean nuclear weapons program. Yoon had floated the possibility of developing nuclear weapons in 2023 after Kim Jong-un announced an “exponential increase” in North Korea’s illegal nuclear arsenal.
“President Yoon reaffirmed the ROK’s [Republic of Korea, South Korea] longstanding commitment to its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as the cornerstone of the global nonproliferation regime,” the Washington Declaration read. In turn, “[T]he United States will further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, as evidenced by the upcoming visit of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine to the ROK.”
In a KCNA commentary on Saturday, Kim finally responded to the Washington Declaration and Yoon’s warm reception in the United States by predicting that Biden will not be able to finish his first presidential term. The promises in the Declaration, she asserted, “provides us [North Korea] with an environment in which we are compelled to take more decisive action in order to deal with the new security environment.” Kim expressed particular outrage at Biden for stating that North Korea’s communist regime would cease to exist if it decided to use a nuclear weapon against South Korea or America.
“Look, a nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies or partisans — partners — is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime, were it to take such an action,” Biden said on Wednesday.
“Another thing that we cannot let pass nor overlook is the fact that the chief executive of the enemy state officially and personally used the word ‘the end of regime’ under the eyes of the world,” Kim Yo-jong noted. “Would we simply regard it as the man’s senility?”
“It may be taken as a nonsensical remark from the person in his dotage who is not at all capable of taking the responsibility for security and the future of the U.S.,” she continued, “an old man with no future, as it is too much for him to serve out two-year remainder of his office term.”
Kim, nonetheless, concluded that, as Biden is president of the United States, “it is threatening rhetoric for which he should be prepared for far too great an after-storm that will not be easy for us to deliver.”
“We are convinced once again of the fact that the enhancement of the nuclear war deterrent, especially the second mission of the nuclear war deterrent, should be brought to further perfection. We know exactly what we are supposed to do,” she continued, concluding that Pyongyang would only develop its nuclear weapons in “proportion” to the alleged threats from Seoul and Washington.
North Korea, whose dictator is believed to be 39 years old, regularly mocks American presidents as old and “senile.” Biden, even before becoming president, was the target of some of the country’s crassest rhetoric.
“Rabid dogs like Biden can hurt lots of people if they are allowed to run about,” a commentary published by KCNA in 2019. “They must be beaten to death with a stick.
“Doing so will be beneficial for the US also,” it added.
North Korean state propaganda also disparaged conservative former President Donald Trump as old and allegedly degenerate.
“Even in his dotage, Trump, the lustful old man, is still lusting for one woman after another,” North Korean media claimed in an alleged “human rights white paper” in 2018. That commentary was published the year after Trump decided to respond directly to repeated insults in KCNA and similar outlets, writing on Twitter, “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’”
KCNA continued its condemnation of America and South Korea on Monday with a roundup of concerns expressed by its allies, China and Russia, in response to Yoon’s visit to the United States. Repeatedly referring to Yoon as a “puppet traitor,” the North Korean government outlet claimed that Yoon elicited “worldwide condemnation and ridicule for his visit to the U.S.,” citing Chinese and Russian propaganda as evidence.
Communist China, North Korea’s closest ally, has been the most vocal nation to condemn the Washington Declaration aside from the Kim regime, as it places an American nuclear asset close to Beijing.
“To elevate the irregular nuclear dialogue mechanism to a regular one and to send Ohio-class nuclear submarines deployed in Guam to South Korea on a regular basis, it is more of a psychological comfort to South Korea,” the Chinese state-run propaganda outlet Global Times claimed, “but for Northeast Asia, it is like inviting a wolf into the house.”
“Its hidden side – targeting China – is also a potential hazard for South Korea,” the editorial continued. “In the face of Yoon’s return from the US, clear-minded South Koreans will be concerned and cannot possibly be delighted.”
The newspaper went on to accuse Yoon of “likely” creating a “nuclear crisis,” language Beijing did not use for Kim Jong-un’s speech in December announcing an “exponential increase of the country’s nuclear arsenal.”
