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Seoul (AFP) – South Korea announced Thursday it had conducted joint air drills with the United States that included strategic bombers and stealth fighters, prompting a tough threat from Pyongyang.
The planes flew over the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry.
The display of military might came a day after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart warned of an increase in such maneuvers and greater security cooperation in the face of what they called a growing threat from missiles and weapons. Pyongyang Nuclear.
“The combined exercises demonstrate the US willingness and ability to provide a credible and comprehensive deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” the Defense Ministry said.
The exercises involved a B-1B strategic bomber and F-22 and F-35B stealth fighters from the US air force, as well as F-35A from South Korea, according to the ministry.
A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry responded that with the exercises, the United States “will trigger an all-out confrontation” with Pyongyang, according to the state news agency KCNA.
He warned that the moves by Seoul and Washington crossed “an extreme red line.”
Seoul is eager to convince its people of the US commitment to its defense, after a year in which North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and carried out weapons tests almost every month.
Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup agreed to “expand and strengthen the level and magnitude” of the joint military exercises in light of “continued provocations” by Pyongyang, including a recent drone raid.
“Dangerous scenario”
The North Korean ministry spokesman called Austin’s commitment “a clear expression of the dangerous US scenario that will turn the Korean peninsula into a huge war arsenal and war zone,” according to KCNA.
A statement quoted by KCNA said that the strengthening of the maneuvers by Washington and Seoul amounts to “talking about the use of nuclear weapons against” North Korea.
Given this, he said, Pyongyang will follow the “principle of ‘nuclear for nuclear and total confrontation for total confrontation’.”
He added that the North “is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the United States as long as it maintains its hostile policy and line of confrontation.”
North Korea reacts harshly against the military exercises between the United States and South Korea, considering that they are rehearsals for an invasion.
Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated in 2022 as the North conducted a record number of weapons tests, including the launch of its most advanced ICBM.
© 2023 AFP