(Seoul) North Korea on Monday pledged a “sustained, firm and overwhelming” response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, after a record slew of missile launches in recent days.
Updated yesterday at 11:51 p.m.
This new warning from Pyongyang comes in response to the “Vigilant Storm” exercise, the largest joint air maneuvers ever carried out 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, the official KCNA news agency reported.
In particular, the APC indicated that it had launched tactical ballistic missiles simulating attacks against air bases and had practiced shooting down enemy planes.
A ballistic missile was fired to test “a special functional warhead crippling the enemy’s operations command system”, she said, without giving further details on this weapon.
The North Korean air force also carried out a “large-scale combat exit operation”, involving 500 aircraft, according to the KCNA. This mobilization prompted the South to deploy combat aircraft on Friday.
Footage of North Korean military operations released Monday by KCNA shows missiles being fired from various undisclosed locations, including some from mobile launchers.
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”.
” Provocation ”
These missile tests, which were accompanied by artillery barrages, were a “clear response” to joint US-South Korean exercises, the North Korean statement added. The general staff called “Vigilant Storm” a “provocation intended to intentionally raise tension in the region”.
“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 exercises 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.
Air maneuvers are of particular concern to Pyongyang, analysts said, as its air force is one of its military’s weakest points, lacking both technologically advanced aircraft and experienced pilots.
Details of North Korea’s operations last week indicate the importance it attaches to the destruction of southern airbases, said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute.
“North Korea considers it important to strike and neutralize airbases first, as its airpower is weak,” he told AFP.
North Korea had already, in September, revised its nuclear doctrine to allow itself to carry out preventive strikes in the event of an existential threat against the Kim Jong-un regime.
If North Korea’s nuclear “command and control system” is “endangered by an attack by hostile forces, a nuclear strike will be launched automatically and immediately,” the new doctrine says.
South Korea began its annual computer-simulated military exercise dubbed “Taegeuk” on Monday, which aims to improve its ability to respond to various North Korean threats, Yonhap news agency reported.
Seoul and Washington expect Pyongyang to carry out a nuclear test soon, which would be the seventh in its history and the first since 2017.