The United States and South Korea kicked off their annual military exercises today, prompting warnings of retaliation from the North – in the form of a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
Advertisement
The start of the annual South Korea-US military exercise Monday adds urgency to our efforts to cope with any North Korean threat. The state-owned Xinhua news agency criticised USA “muscle-flexing”, warning it would “lead to a vicious circle of violence for violence” that could provoke fighting. North Korea on Monday decried the two-week long military exercises and threatened a “pre-emptive” nuclear attack on the “slightest sign of aggression”.
In a statement, US and South Korean forces described the 12-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian war games as “non-provocative in nature” and created to enhance “readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula”.
A U.S. plan to build a high-tech missile system in South Korea and the defection of a high-rank Pyongyang diplomat Thae Yong Ho has enraged the North Korean regime.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said it appears the North planted the mines to prevent front-line North Korean soldiers from defecting to South Korea via Panmunjom.
The North’s “first-strike” units are ready to mount retaliatory attacks on South Korean and USA forces involved in the drills, according to the statement, carried by Pyongyang’s state media.
Last week, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to Britain, Thae Yong-Ho, defected to the South – a rare and damaging loss of diplomatic face for Pyongyang and a major PR victory for Seoul.
The two-week annual Ulchi Freedom exercise is largely computer-simulated, but still involves around 50,000 Korean and 25,000 United States soldiers.
Ulchi Freedom plays out a full-scale invasion scenario by nuclear-armed North Korea and both Seoul and Washington insist it remains purely defensive in nature.
South Korea believes that its neighbor may turn to assassinations and kidnappings to assert its authority following a number of recent defections.
In response, the North’s official news agency described the defector as “human scum” and said he had fled to avoid criminal charges including embezzling funds and raping a minor.
As Korea JoongAng Daily reports, South Korean President Park Geun-hye hosted a National Security Council meeting Monday morning, in which she made a “conspicuously strong remark questioning the stability of the Kim Jong-un regime”.
In January, Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test and has since attempted to launch several missiles, with one flying into the Sea of Japan.
The U.S. military has also been beefing up its presence in the region, jointly deploying three strategic bombers, the B-52 Stratofortress, B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit, to the region for the first time.
Advertisement
North Korea has made similar statements in the past, but according to research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the joint drills do not provoke North Korea.
