exercises

North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong said the annual ‘Freedom Shield’ exercises could lead to ‘unimaginably terrible consequences’.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has accused the United States and South Korea of “destroying the stability” of East Asia, as the two countries start their annual 10-day joint military exercises on the Korean Peninsula.

“The muscle-flexing of the hostile forces near the areas of our state’s sovereignty and security may cause unimaginably terrible consequences,” Kim Yo Yong said on Tuesday, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“The enemies should never try to test our patience, will and capability,” Kim said.

“We will watch to what extent the enemy violates the security of our state and what it is playing at,” she continued.

Kim’s remarks follow the start of the joint Freedom Shield exercises on Monday, which will run for 10 days and involve 18,000 South Korean and US military personnel.

The military manoeuvres are designed to “enhance the combined, joint, all-domain, and interagency operational environment, thereby strengthening the Alliance’s response capabilities,” United States Forces Korea said.

This year’s Freedom Shield will involve 22 field training drills, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, which is fewer than half the number carried out last year.

Kim added on Tuesday that there was no justification to hold the exercises, which have been called a “defensive” action by Washington and Seoul in the past.

“No matter what justification they may establish and how the elements of the drill may be coordinated, the clear confrontational nature of the high-intensity large-scale war drill staged by the most hostile entities in collusion at the doorstep of [North Korea] never changes,” she said.

“The recent global geopolitical crisis and complicated international events prove that all military manoeuvres of the field warfare troops, to be conducted by the enemy states, assume no distinction between defence and attack, training and actual warfare,” she continued, in an apparent reference to the US-Israel war on Iran.

South Korea and North Korea have technically been at war since 1953, when an armistice agreement paused fighting but did not formally end the armed confrontation.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in 2024 that he would no longer pursue reconciliation with South Korea, although it remains Seoul’s long-term goal.

An official at South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told Yonhap that Kim’s remarks on Tuesday were relatively muted by North Korean standards.

The statement did not refer directly to the US or threaten to use nuclear weapons, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Kim appears to have limited her response to merely pinpointing the South Korea-US exercise, taking the current security situation into account,” the official told Yonhap.

JESY Nelson has shared an adorable video of her daughter’s “ballerina” leg exercises amid her twins’ SMA diagnosis.

The singer gave birth to her little girls prematurely at 31 weeks last year.

And, back in January, Jesy bravely revealed the twins, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe, have since been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1 (SMA1).

It is a genetic condition that weakens the muscles by damaging motor nerve cells in the spinal cord.

It leads to progressive muscle wasting, and if untreated, the life expectancy of a baby with SMA Type 1 is just two years.

Jesy and her ex-fiancee Zion Foster have been told it is unlikely the girls will ever walk, and may face serious breathing and swallowing difficulties.

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The brave mum-of-two has been keeping her fans updated on the twins condition on social media.

Jesy, 34, has now shared a sweet clip of the twins doing their “ballerina” exercises to keep their legs mobile.

Speaking to one of the twins in the video, she said: “Are you gonna show them how you move your legs? Your a little ballerina, come on.

“Good girl. Little ballerina, yes you are.”

Progressive resistance training (PRT) with a little resistance band has the potential to increase strength and increase motor function in children and young adults with SMA, according to the National Institute of Health.

Jesy panned the camera up to her daughter’s face and she seemed super chilled as she bent and unbent her leg.

The tot was spotted with her feeding tube in her nose as it helps to clear their chests.

The former Little Mix singer recently released a fly-on-the-wall Amazon Prime documentary.

The series, which climbed to number one in Amazon’s viewing charts, follows her shock departure from Little Mix in 2020 and her journey to motherhood with her now ex-boyfriend Zion.

Since revealing her twins’ diagnosis, Jesy is now campaigning for the NHS to expand the standard heel prick test to screen for SMA1.

She says the test, which costs around £1, could have “saved their legs” by giving them access to treatment sooner.

If the twins had been tested and treated in time, there was a chance they would have avoided disability.