Pyongyang has warned of an “unprecedented” response to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills. The drills, planned for next week, are part of the allies’ efforts to better deal with threats from the isolated country
North Korea last Friday threatened an “unprecedentedly stubborn and strong” response as South Korea and the United States plan joint military exercises. The statement came shortly after South Korea announced joint exercises next week.
“In the event that the US and South Korea carry out their plan for military exercises, out of fear and logic alone, they are considered to be preparations for an aggressive war, they will face continuous and unprecedentedly strong countermeasures,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement published in the country’s media.
Pyongyang called South Korea and the US “the arch-criminals who deliberately disrupt regional peace and stability.”
“It predicts that the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the region will once again fall into the grave vortex of rising tension,” the statement said.
The joint South Korea-US drills, set to begin on February 22, are part of efforts to thwart North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile threats.
Defense policymakers from both sides will be involved in the exercises, Seoul’s Ministry of Defense said. Military exercises with the United States were reduced during the Corona epidemic. But now they are getting a boost under South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, as he tries to reassure a South Korean public increasingly nervous about Washington’s commitment to deterring North Korea.
North Korea’s foreign ministry also warned that if the UN Security Council continues to be led by Washington, it will reconsider additional actions beyond normal military activity, without elaborating.
The ministry accused the US of stoking tensions and using other countries as an “instrument of illegal hostile policies” to pressure North Korea. In 2022, North Korea conducted a record number of military tests, firing about 70 ballistic missiles. The tests included weapons with A nuclear capability with the ability to hit targets in South Korea or reach the US mainland.