U.S., South Korea start air drills

Exercises include practice strikes on North’s nuclear sites

HONG KONG — The United States and South Korea began large-scale combined air force drills Monday, with plans to carry out simulated strikes on North Korean nuclear and missile testing sites, South Korean military officials said.

The five-day drill, which is called Vigilant Ace, is meant to improve the allies’ wartime capabilities and preparedness, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.

The U.S. 7th 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.

The drills come just a week after North Korea tested a missile that analysts said had the capability of reaching much of

the continental United States.

The drills were part of an annual exercise that had been planned before North Korea conducted the missile test, officials said.

The exercise is “aimed at enhancing the all-weather, day and night combined air power operation capabilities of South Korea and the U.S.,” South Korea’s defense ministry said.

Such drills have drawn vigorous criticism from North Korea, whose state news media said Sunday that the latest exercises were pushing the Korean Peninsula “to the brink of nuclear war.” It warned that Pyongyang would “seriously consider” countermeasures against the drill and that the United States and South Korea would “pay dearly for their provocations,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said.

Such language is typical in North Korean propaganda because the country claims U.S.-South Korean drills are preparation for invasion.

While many South Koreans typically ignore North Korea’s rhetoric, some senior American officials have expressed worry after the intercontinental ballistic missile test, North Korea’s third.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina urged the Pentagon on Sunday to move dependents of U.S. service members out of South Korea because of the threat of conflict. More than 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed there, many living with their families.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned on 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.”

Stoltenberg added that NATO “will continue to put maximum pressure on North Korea. We will continue to deliver credible deterrence and … work with our partners in the region.”

The drills will be conducted under wartime scenarios that include attacks on mock North Korean nuclear and missile targets, South Korea’s military said.

North Korea’s missile launch last Tuesday came after more than a two-month lull in the country’s nuclear and missile testing, which raised some hopes that it might be extending an olive branch to ease the hair-trigger military tensions on the peninsula.

The South China Morning Post reported Monday that the crew of a Cathay Pacific flight traveling to Hong Kong from San Francisco spotted what appeared to be the North Korean missile exploding upon re-entry as the flight was passing over Japan last Tuesday. The airline said that it had no plans to change its routes in the wake of the sighting.

Information for this article was contributed by Gerry Mullany of The New York Times; and by Youkyung Lee of The Associated Press.