North Korea says South, U.S. should ‘pay a price’ for military drills

South Korea and the United States should pay a price for going ahead with annual joint military drills due to begin this week, Kim Yo Jong, a powerful North Korean official and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday.

South Korea and the United States began preliminary training on Tuesday and larger, computer-simulated exercises are scheduled for next week, military sources told Reuters.

The drills have led to increased tensions on the Korean peninsula after a sudden thaw in relations saw Seoul and Pyongyang agree in July to reconnect a hotline that had been cut last year.

The nuclear-armed North’s reaction to the drills also threatens to upend efforts by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to reopen a joint liaison office that Pyongyang blew up last year and to hold a summit as part of efforts to restore relations.

Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by North Korean state news agency KCNA that the exercises were an “act of self-destruction for which a dear price should be paid as they threaten the safety of our people and further imperil the situation on the Korean peninsula”.