(Seoul) North Korea on Monday pledged a “sustained, firm and overwhelming” military response to joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported.
Posted at 6:23 p.m.
The new warning comes after a record series of North Korean missile launches in recent days in response to Exercise Vigilant Storm, the largest joint aerial maneuvers ever conducted by Seoul and Washington.
In a statement, the general staff of the Korean People’s Army said that the latter “will continue to respond to all the enemy’s anti-DPRK war exercises with sustained, resolute and overwhelming practical military measures”. using an acronym for North Korea’s official name, KCNA reported.
The North’s recent ballistic missile tests are a “clear response” to joint US-South Korean drills, the statement added.
“The longer the enemy’s military provocations continue, the more thoroughly and ruthlessly the Korean People’s Army will counter them,” the statement further threatens.
Hundreds of American and South Korean warplanes – including powerful B-1B heavy bombers – took part in “Vigilant Storm” exercises from October 31 to November 5. It was the first time B-1Bs had visited the Korean Peninsula since December 2017.
According to the South Korean general staff, these maneuvers were intended to demonstrate the “ability and readiness to respond firmly to any provocation by North Korea”.
The US-South Korean maneuvers have long drawn strong reactions from North Korea, which sees them as dress rehearsals for an invasion of its territory or an attempt to overthrow its regime.
During “Vigilant Storm”, North Korea fired several dozen ballistic missiles at sea, one of which fell near southern territorial waters. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has denounced a “de facto territorial invasion”.