The influential sister of North Korea’s leader issued a stern and worrisome warning that her country will take “quick, overwhelming action,” against the United States and South Korea, one day after the United States flew a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber as part of a demonstration of strength against the North.

The U.S. and South Korea conducted a training exercise Monday that involved the B-52 bomber flying over the Korean Peninsula, Politico writes. It was the latest in a series of drills between the two allies in recent months. Their militaries are also set to revive their largest field exercises later this month.

Folks, if you don’t know it already, this is bad news. When you shake your fist in someone’s face they tend to feel threatened. This is largely why Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is stepping up. And I get it, North Korea isn’t innocent either; the country has been testing ICBM missiles, carefully testing them at steep angles to avoid neighboring countries ensuring that they land in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Last month she warned that if the U.S. attempted to intercept one of the missiles, she would consider that a declaration of war.

Kim Yo Jong didn’t specify details in her statement, but it hasn’t been unusual for North Korea to test-launch missiles in response to military drills conducted by the U.S. and South Korea because it considers the military drills as an invasion rehearsal.

“We keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the South Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment,” Kim Yo Jong said in the statement provided by state media.

“The demonstrative military moves and all sorts of rhetoric by the U.S. and South Korea, which go so extremely frantic as not to be overlooked, undoubtedly provide (North Korea) with conditions for being forced to do something to cope with them,” she added.

After the training mission on Monday, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the B-52’s deployment demonstrated the allies’ ability to deter North Korean aggressions. Earlier this year, the U.S. deployed a long-range U.S. B-1B bomber or possibly several B-1B bombers to the peninsula, and South Korea said these drills demonstrated the allies’ effectiveness in responding to any possible aggression from North Korea.

On Friday, the U.S. and South Korean militaries announced they would resume conducting computer-simulated command post training from March 13-23, thus resuming their largest springtime field exercises that were last held in 2018.

These regular drills had been scaled back in 2018 to support diplomacy with North Korea that is now slowly evaporating and was also a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the U.S. and South Korea began implementing the exercises after North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests and began threatening to use its nuclear power in potential conflicts with its rivals.

In another statement issued Tuesday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry described the flyover of the U.S. B-52 bomber as a reckless provocation that drives the situation on the peninsula “deeper into the bottomless quagmire.” The statement has been attributed to the unnamed head of North Korea’s foreign news office and it added “there is no guarantee that there will be no violent physical conflict” if the U.S.-South Korean military provocation continues.

It’s not unusual for North Korea to use fiery rhetoric when the situation becomes tense as the U.S. and South Korean military step up military exercises. Observers say one step North Korea may take include a nuclear test. They also say there’s the possibility that it may launch a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile targeting the U.S. mainland.

South Korea is also trying to cozy up to Japan by taking steps to ease a complicated historical dispute with the country in what is being viewed as an effort to boost the trilateral Seoul-Tokyo-Washington security cooperation. The move surrounds a plan that uses local funds to compensate Koreans who for all practical purposes forced to work as slaves during Tokyo’s colonial rule. Japanese corporations, however, are not required to contribute to the reparations.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel heaped praise on both the South Korean and the Japanese leader, saying the two began to understand that “potential of collaboration into the future is more important and have a greater value and realizing you have to deal with historic issues.”

All this saber-rattling does is stir up animosities between all of the countries involved, and the U.S. is not innocent in this game either. The U.S. lobs threats at Russia and Russia responds with more threats and vice versa. We’ve helped stoke tensions in the middle east and frequently stuck our noses where they don’t belong. And yes, I know many of these countries are doing exactly the same to us. But I also know you won’t hear a lot of this from the mainstream media. It’s really up to all of us to do our own research to truly understand what is happening.

With all this bickering, arguing, and threatening, I can’t help but think of the Peter Gabriel song Games Without Frontiers. Sure, it was written a long time ago but it seems particularly fitting today.

“If looks could kill they probably will.”