The several days of verbal sparring between the United States and North Korea continued Thursday, with the U.S. Secretary of Defense responding to the recent comments by the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Per Fox News, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that U.S. forces are ready to  "fight tonight.”

“Our force remains ready to 'fight tonight,' and we continue to make progress toward the eventual transition of wartime Operational Control to a [South Korea]-commanded, future Combined Forces Command," the secretary said. "While meeting all the conditions for this transition will take more time, I'm confident that this process will strengthen our alliance.”

The comments came during the tour of Asia this week by Austin and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, the first cabinet-level foreign trip of the Biden presidency. On the trip, the secretaries have met with their counterparts in Japan and South Korea, and North Korea and its nuclear ambitions have been among the main topics of discussion in the meetings.

The meetings have coincided with a round of joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. Also, a U.S. intelligence source indicated that North Korea may be preparing to launch a missile test.

With the U.S. officials in Asia, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, issued an eye-opening statement.

“We take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration trying hard to give off powder smell in our land," Kim Yo Jong said, per the state-owned media outlet KCNA.  "If it wants to sleep in peace for coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink at its first step."

Also this week, North Korea released a propaganda poster, in the state media outlet Uriminzokkiri, taking aim at the U.S./South Korea alliance. The poster was described by the Yonhap News Agency as “a hammer with ‘self-determination’ inscribed on it crushes a chain into pieces. With the shattered chain comes such words as ‘alliance first’ and ‘policy of dependence on foreign powers’ scattered around.’”

The new belligerence follows the brief diplomatic opening that took place between the U.S. and North Korea during the Trump Administration, although that opening concluded without any type of agreement about denuclearization or any other major goal of the talks.

“North Korea is a problem,” Biden said last year in the first presidential debate. “We’re going to make sure we can control them and make sure they cannot hurt us. And so if you want [to] do something about it steep up and help. If not, it’s going to continue.”

 Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.