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North Korea's Kim Yo Jong Calls South Korean Drills a Provocation

28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa
28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa
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North Korea's Kim Yo Jong Calls South Korean Drills a Provocation

28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa
28 June 2024, South Korea, Jeju: A Super Hornet fighter jet taking part in the first multidomain exercise of Freedom Edge held by South Korea, the United States and Japan in international waters, south of South Korea's southern island of Jeju. /US Navy vs YNA/dpa

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said South Korea's recent military drills near the border between the two nations are an inexcusable and explicit provocation, according to a report from state media KCNA on Monday.

Kim Yo Jong also accused Yoon of creating tensions on the Korean peninsula to divert public attention away from his poor performance in domestic politics. She cited an online petition calling for Yoon to be impeached, with more than 1 million signatures.

Kim said that in case North Korea judges its own sovereignty as violated, its armed forces will immediately carry out mission and duty according to its constitution.

The South Korean military has resumed live-fire artillery drills near the western maritime border in late June, the first time since 2018.

Last month, South Korea said it would suspend a military agreement signed with North Korea in 2018 aimed at easing tensions, in protest against North Korea's trash balloon launches toward the South.

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‘Impossible’ for People’s Republic of China to Be Our Motherland, Taiwan President Says

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Impossible’ for People’s Republic of China to Be Our Motherland, Taiwan President Says

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visits Republic of China Military Academy, an officer training academy, for its 100th anniversary celebrations in Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 16, 2024. (Reuters)

It is "impossible" for the People's Republic of China to become Taiwan's motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, the island's President Lai Ching-te said on Saturday.

Lai, who took office in May, is condemned by Beijing as a "separatist". He rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying that the island is a country called the Republic of China, which traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty.

The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists who set up the People's Republic of China, which continues to claim the island as its "sacred" territory.

Speaking at a concert ahead of Taiwan's national day celebrations on Oct. 10, Lai noted that the People's Republic had celebrated its 75th anniversary on Oct. 1, and in a few days it would be the Republic of China's 113th birthday.

"Therefore, in terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People's Republic of China to become the 'motherland' of the Republic of China's people. On the contrary, the Republic of China may be the motherland of the people of the People's Republic of China who are over 75 years old," Lai added, to applause.

"One of the most important meanings of these celebrations is that we must remember that we are a sovereign and independent country," he said.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a speech on the eve of his country's national day, reiterated his government's view that Taiwan was its territory.

Lai, who will give his own keynote national day address on Oct. 10, has needled Beijing before with historical references.

Last month, Lai said that if China's claims on Taiwan were about territorial integrity, then it should also take back land from Russia signed over by the last Chinese dynasty in the 19th century.