▲ This file photo, captured from the homepage of North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Aug. 11, 2022, shows Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister and vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) N Korea-US-tension

(LEAD) Kim's sister warns U.S. military will face 'very critical flight' in case of 'repeated intrusion'

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with remarks, details; ADDS byline)

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, July 11 (Yonhap) -- The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatened Tuesday that the U.S. military will face a "very critical flight" in case of a "repeated illegal intrusion," the latest in a string of warnings against U.S. spy planes allegedly violating its airspace.

The warning by Kim Yo-jong, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), came hours after she issued a statement late Monday alleging that a U.S. spy aircraft entered North Korean airspace within their exclusive economic zone earlier in the day.

"I have already notified beforehand the counteraction of our army upon authorization. In case of repeated illegal intrusion, the U.S. forces will experience a very critical flight," Kim said in an English-language dispatch carried by the KCNA.

Earlier Monday, a spokesperson of the North's defense ministry also accused the U.S. spy aircraft of intruding into its airspace recently, threatening that there is no guarantee such aircraft will not be shot down.

Kim reiterated the claim in her latest statement, saying that the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft intruded into the economic water zone to commit what she called an "aerial espionage act."

"The strategic reconnaissance plane of the U.S. Air Force illegally intruded into the economic water zone of the DPRK side in the East Sea of Korea eight times," she said, referring to her country by the acronym of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim, a vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, threatened that the North Korean military may take counteraction against similar action.

She also slammed South Korea for intervening in the issue, arguing that it is "one between the Korean People's Army and the U.S. forces," and called on the South to "stop acting impudently and shut up at once."

South Korea's military has rejected the North's claim of its airspace being violated as "not true" and described flights by U.S. aerial surveillance assets around the peninsula as part of regular surveillance activities.

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