NKorea:‘Overwhelming’ nuke force vs US moves
EOUL: North Korea said on Thursday it was prepared to counter United States military moves with the “most overwhelming nuclear force” as it warned that the expansion of Washington’s combined military exercises with rival South Korea was pushing tensions to an “extreme red line.”
The statement from Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry came in response to comments by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who said in South Korea’s capital Seoul on Tuesday that Washington would increase its deployment of advanced military assets to the Korean Peninsula, including fighter jets and aircraft carriers, as it strengthens joint training and operational planning with the South.
Seoul’s security jitters have risen since North Korea test-fired dozens of missiles in 2022, including potentially nuclear-capable ones designed to strike targets in South Korea and the US mainland.
In a statement attributed to an unidentified spokesman of its Foreign Ministry, North Korea said the expansion of the allies’ drills was threatening to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.”
The North is prepared to counter any short- or long-term military challenge by the allies with the “most overwhelming nuclear force,” it added.
“The military and political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red line due to the reckless military confrontational maneuvers and hostile acts of the US and its vassal forces,” the spokesman said.
For decades North Korea has described the US’ combined military exercises with the South as rehearsals for a potential invasion, although the allies have described those drills as defensive.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the US flew B-1B bombers and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets during an exercise with South Korean fighters above the country’s western waters on Wednesday. Washington and Seoul also planning to hold a simulation exercise this month aimed at sharpening their response if Pyongyang uses nuclear weapons.
North Korea ramped up its own weapons demonstrations last year as the allies resumed their largescale training. Pyongyang’s actions included a slew of missile and artillery launches that it described as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets.
“DPRK will take the toughest reaction to any military attempt of the US on the principle of ‘nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation!’” the North Korean spokesman said, using the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“If the US continues to introduce strategic assets into the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding area, the DPRK will make clearer its deterring activities without fail according to their nature,” the spokesman added.
Jeon Ha Gyu, spokesman of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said the ministry had no immediate comment in response to the North Korean statement. But he added that the allies’ latest aerial drills were aimed at demonstrating the credibility of the US “extended deterrence” — a reference to a commitment to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear ones, to defend the South.
He declined to reveal the exact number of US and South Korean aircraft involved in the exercise.
In a news conference following their meeting, Austin said he and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup agreed to further expand their combined military exercises, including more live-fire demonstrations. They pledged to continue a “timely and coordinated” deployment of US strategic assets to the region.
They said that their countries’ resumption of large-scale military drills last year effectively demonstrated their combined capabilities to deter North Korean aggression.
The allies had downsized their training in recent years to create room for diplomacy with North Korea during the administration of thenpresident Donald Trump and because of the coronavirus pandemic.