North Korea on Monday pledged a “sustained, firm and overwhelming” response to joint US-South Korea military exercises after a record number of missile launches in recent days.
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This new warning from Pyongyang comes in response to the “Vigilant Storm” exercise, the largest joint air maneuver ever conducted by Seoul and Washington.
In a statement, the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said the latter “will continue to respond to all enemy war drills against the DPRK with sustained, resolute and overwhelming practical military action,” using an acronym for North Korea’s official name. This was reported by the official news agency KCNA.
During the “Vigilant Storm,” North Korea fired several dozen ballistic missiles at sea, one of which crashed near southern territorial waters. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol denounced a “territorial invasion of facts”.
“Provocation”
These missile tests, accompanied by artillery fire and massive airstrikes, are a “clear response” to joint US-South Korean exercises, the North Korean statement added. The Joint Chiefs of Staff called “Vigilant Storm” a “provocation intentionally designed to increase tensions in the region.”
“The longer the enemy’s military provocations continue, the more thorough and ruthless the Korean People’s Army will counter them,” the statement said.
Hundreds of American and South Korean fighter jets – including powerful B-1B heavy bombers – took part in the “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 decisively to any provocation by North Korea.”
The US-South Korean maneuvers have long drawn backlash from North Korea, which sees them as a dress rehearsal for an invasion of its territory or an attempt to overthrow its regime.
Air maneuvers are of particular importance to Pyongyang, analysts said, as its air force is one of its military’s weakest points, lacking both technologically advanced aircraft and experienced pilots.
North Korea had already revised its nuclear doctrine in September in order to be able to carry out preventive strikes in the event of an existential threat to the Kim Jong Un regime.
If North Korea’s nuclear “command and control system” is “threatened by an attack by hostile forces, a nuclear strike will be launched automatically and immediately,” the new doctrine says.
Seoul and Washington expect Pyongyang will soon conduct a nuclear test that would be the seventh in its history and the first since 2017.