Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has criticized the joint military drills between South Korea and the United States.

In a statement carried by the North’s state Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) on Wednesday, the vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee said that the U.S. and its puppets conducted about 80 rounds of joint military drills so far this year, and South Korea individually carried out about 60 exercises. 

Mentioning each of the combined exercises between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan conducted this year, Kim accused the nations of heightening regional tensions by holding joint military maneuvers almost every week. 

Kim then vowed to continue to strengthen the country’s overwhelming military power to defend its sovereignty, security and regional peace. 

In another statement by an official from the department of press information at the North’s foreign ministry, the North called for the U.S. and South Korea to stop holding joint exercises, denouncing them as an irresponsible and concerning show of force that drives the Korean Peninsula into an unpredictable situation.