(2nd LD) Kim's sister warns U.S. military will face 'very critical flight' in case of 'repeated intrusion'

▲ 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)

▲ This file photo, taken May 30, 2023, shows the U.S. U-2S reconnaissance aircraft landing at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)

(2nd LD) N Korea-US-tension

(2nd LD) Kim's sister warns U.S. military will face 'very critical flight' in case of 'repeated intrusion'

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details throughout; ADDS photo; AMENDS byline)

By Kim Soo-yeon and 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 Korea's 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.

In the latest statement, Kim claimed that U.S. reconnaissance aircraft intruded into the "economic water zone" to commit what she called an "aerial espionage act." She said U.S. surveillance flights encroached on the North's sovereignty.

"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.

Meanwhile, Kim unusually used South Korea's full name, the Republic of Korea (ROK), in her latest statements, a departure from the North's long-time reference to the South as "south Korea" or "the south Korean puppet."

The move appears to indicate that the North may be seeking to deal with South Korea as a separate nation in a state-to-state relation.

Under an inter-Korean basic agreement signed in 1991, inter-Korean ties were designated as a "special relationship" tentatively formed in the process of seeking reunification, not as a state-to-state relation.

Kim's statements using the ROK might apparently signal that North Korea seeks "confrontational co-existence" with South Korea, rather than sounding out an improvement in inter-Korean ties, according to observers.

In early July, North Korea rejected a bid by the chief of South Korea's Hyundai Group to visit the North's Mount Kumgang in August through its foreign ministry, not via state organs in charge of inter-Korean relations.

"As North Korea argued the issue of U.S. surveillance flights is a matter between Pyongyang and Washington, the North appears to stress it will not deal with South Korea when it comes to issues related to the Korean Peninsula," said Yang Moo-Jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies.

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