Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un attends an event in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 2, 2019.REUTERS/YONHAP
South Korea’s military on Tuesday hit back at Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after she threatened “pre-emptive” measures over the South's warning shots fired near the military demarcation line (MDL).
“The warning broadcasts and warning shots conducted by our military are legitimate defensive measures intended to prevent North Korean troops from crossing the MDL and to push back troops that do cross,” South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said. “If North Korea uses this as a pretext for further provocations, we will respond decisively.”
South Korean military authorities also confirmed that North Korean troops crossed the MDL dozens of times along the eastern front over the past three days.
South Korea’s top military officer also weighed in.
“It is unacceptable for North Korea to characterize our legitimate operational measures as provocations and shift responsibility for escalating tensions onto us,” Gen. Jin Yong-sung, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a meeting of frontline corps commanders on Tuesday.
The South Korean military is also pursuing measures to strengthen its operational control, including the installation of 20-meter-high (66-foot-high) observation towers and medium-range cameras inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Kim Yo-jong claimed that the South Korean military had issued 2,870 warning broadcasts and fired warning shots on 201 occasions between Aug. 1 and Saturday, in a statement on Monday.
Approximately 60 of the 91 warning shots fired from Oct. 1 to Saturday came in just three days — from Thursday to Saturday — Kim emphasized.
She added the South Korean military’s actions were putting North Korean troops and border security at continued risk. She warned that further provocations could bring consequences beyond Seoul’s control and stressed that North Korea would defend its sovereignty with action, not words alone.
A North Korean military observation post is seen from South Korean border area in Paju, Gyeonggi, on Nov. 18, 2025.NEWS1
North Korean troops crossed the MDL dozens of times during that period in an area of the eastern front overseen by the South Korean Army’s 21st Infantry Division, according to military sources.
South and North Korea have different understandings of the exact location of the MDL in the area, and groups of four to five armed North Korean guards periodically move southward there. More recently, North Korean work crews involved in nearby fortification projects have also frequently crossed the line.
Some within and outside the South Korean military have raised the possibility that Kim responded directly because South Korea’s repeated warning shots disrupted North Korea’s frontline construction work.
The repeated crossings may be intended to keep construction on schedule as Kim Jong-un pushes to accelerate work along the front.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
