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.



No Repeat of Jerusalem Incident Will Be Accepted, France Says

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
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No Repeat of Jerusalem Incident Will Be Accepted, France Says

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot poses for photographers overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, right, from the Mount of Olives during his visit to Jerusalem, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP)

A repeat of an incident in Jerusalem that saw armed Israeli security forces entering a property administered by France must never happen again, France's foreign minister said ahead of summoning Israel's envoy on Tuesday.

Two French security officials with diplomatic status were briefly detained on Nov. 7 after Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit the compound of the Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives.

The site, one of four administered by France in Jerusalem, is under Paris' responsibility and it not the first time that problems have arisen over France's historic holdings in the Holy City.

"It is an opportunity for France to reiterate that it will not tolerate Israeli armed forces entering these areas, for which it (France) is responsible, for which it ensures protection," Barrot told France 24 television when asked what the ambassador would be told.

"And to strongly reaffirm that this incident must never happen again, meaning that Israeli forces enter armed and without authorization."

Israel's ambassador is due to meet Barrot's chief of staff at the foreign ministry on Tuesday.

Israel's foreign ministry has said that every visiting foreign leader is accompanied by its security personnel, a point that had been "clarified in advance in the preparatory dialogue with the French Embassy in Israel".

Diplomatic relations between France and Israel have worsened since President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to the supply to Israel of offensive weapons used in Gaza.

The French government also attempted to ban Israeli weapons' firms from exhibiting at a trade fair in Paris and has become increasingly uneasy over Israel's conduct in the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.