U.S., South Korea hold military drills
SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — Hundreds of aircraft including two dozen stealth jets began training Monday as the U.S. and South Korea launched a massive combined air force exercise. The war games come a week after North Korea test-fired its most powerful missile yet, an ICBM that may be able to target the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
The five-day drill, which is called Vigilant Ace, is meant to improve the allies’ wartime capabilities and preparedness, South Korea’s defence ministry said.
The U.S. Seventh Air Force sent major strategic military assets, including an unusually large number of the latest generations of stealth fighter jets, for the annual training in the Korean Peninsula. They include six F-22 and 18 F-35 stealth fighter jets. About 12,000 U.S. military personnel are participating. In total, 230 aircraft will be flying at eight U.S. and South Korean military installations in the South.
Some local media report that B-1B bombers will also join aerial drills, but officials did not confirm their participation.
The training, held each year in late fall, is not in response to any incident or provocation, the Seventh Air Force said in a statement.
North Korea’s state media said the drill pushes the Korean Peninsula “to the brink of nuclear war.” Such language is typical in North Korean propaganda because the country claims U.S.-South Korean drills are preparation for invasion.
Still, always-high tensions are at a particularly dangerous point as North Korea edges toward its goal of a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, and as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up his rhetoric toward the North, threatening, for instance, to unleash “fire and fury” against the country. Pyongyang will “seriously consider” countermeasures against the drill, and the U.S. and South Korea will “pay dearly for their provocations,” the Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday before the start of the exercises.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Monday that war on the Korean Peninsula “would be catastrophic and it would have global consequences.”
He said the 29-country military alliance “is strong, and united, and NATO is able to respond to any attack, including ballistic and nuclear attacks.”