Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the main voice on inter-Korean relations, issued a statement on Sunday, expressing Pyongyang’s hostile stance against the upcoming joint military drills between South Korea, the United States, and Japan from September 15 to 19. (DPRK is an acronym of North Korea’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.) All three countries involved – Japan, South Korea, and the United States – have new leadership since last year’s iteration of the drills. That could include tests of inter-continental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, or other strategic nuclear weapons that would raise high alarm in the United States. North Korea’s strategy to increase and consolidate its leverage in the region by strengthening ties with Russia and China for forming a trilateral anti-U.S. cooperation.