North Korea has threatened to take “unprecedently” strong action against its rivals. The country made this statement soon after South Korea announced a series of planned military drills with the United States to hone their joint response to the North’s increasing nuclear threats.
North Korea has halted weapons testing activities since its short-range missile firing on January 1, 2023, though it launched more than 70 missiles in 2022 which is a record number for a single year.
North Korea’s warning on Friday, February 17, 2023, suggests the North’s weapons testing could resume soon over its rivals’ military training, which it views as an invasion rehearsal.
In a statement carried by state media, the North Korean Foreign Ministry pronounced, “In case the U.S. and South Korea carry into practice their already announced plan for military drills that (North Korea), with just apprehension and reason, regards as preparations for an aggression war, they will face unprecedentedly persistent and strong counteractions.”
The statement accused South Korea and the United States of planning more than 20 rounds of military drills, including their largest-ever field exercises. It called South Korea and the United States “the arch-criminals deliberately disrupting” regional peace and stability.
“This predicts that the situation in the Korean Peninsula and the region will be again plunged into the grave vortex of escalating tension,” the statement said.
The statement did not specify which U.S.-South Korean military trainings it was referring to. However, North Korea has typically slammed all major regular military drills between Washington and Seoul as a practice to launch an invasion and responded with its own weapons tests.
A Chance For North Korea To Perfect Its Weapon Systems
Some experts claim that North Korea has used various South Korea-U.S. drills as a chance to test and perfect its weapons systems.
They say North Korea would eventually aim to use its enlarged nuclear arsenal to win international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state and win sanctions relief and other concessions.
Seoul and Washington have said their training is defensive in nature.
Earlier on Friday, February 17, 2023, Seoul officials announced that South Korea and the U.S. will hold a one-day tabletop exercise next week at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, to sharpen a response to a potential use of nuclear weapons by North Korea.
The exercise, scheduled for Wednesday, February 22, 2023, would set up possible scenarios where North Korea uses nuclear weapons, explore how to cope with them militarily and formulate crisis management plans, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a statement
Also on Friday, Heo Tae-keun, South Korea’s Deputy Minister of national defense policy, told lawmakers that Seoul and Washington will hold an annual computer-simulated combined training in mid-March.
Heo said the 11-day training would reflect North Korea’s nuclear threats, as well as unspecified lessons from the Russia-Ukraine War.
Heo added that the two countries will also conduct joint field exercises in mid-March that would be bigger than those held in the past few years.
The allies had downsized or canceled some of their regular drills in recent years to guard against the COVID-19 pandemic and support now-dormant diplomacy on North Korea’s nuclear program.
Seoul’s security concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program deepened after Pyongyang last year adopted a law that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons, and tested nuclear-capable missiles that put South Korea within striking distance.
South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries quickly condemned that missile launch saying that the North’s testing of these missiles threatens stability in the region. They agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence.
Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.
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