US drills ‘heightening tensions on peninsula’

NORTH Korea said yesterday that drills by the US and its allies have reached an “extreme red line” and threaten to turn the peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone”.

According to the Foreign Ministry statement Pyongyang was not interested in dialogue as long as Washington pursues hostile policies.

“The military and political situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region has reached an extreme red line due to the reckless military confrontational manoeuvres and hostile acts of the US and its vassal forces,” a ministry spokesperson said.

It cited a visit to Seoul this week by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, who, with his South Korean counterpart vowed to expand military drills and deploy more “strategic assets” such as aircraft carriers and long-range bombers to counter North Korea’s weapons development and prevent a war.

“This is a vivid expression of the US dangerous scenario which will result in turning the Korean peninsula into a huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone,” the North Korean statement said.

The US has pushed to expand military, political, and economic ties across Asia. In Manila yesterday, Austin and his counterpart there announced that the Philippines had granted the US expanded access to its military bases amid mounting concern over China’s increasing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea and tensions over self-ruled Taiwan. Austin said that the US goal was to promote greater security and stability and that it remained committed to defending South Korea.

North Korea said it would respond to any military moves by the US, and had strong counteraction strategies, including “the most overwhelming nuclear force” if necessary.

On Wednesday, the US and South Korea carried out a joint air drill with American B-1B heavy bombers and F-22 stealth fighters, as well as F-35 jets from both countries, according to South Korea’s Defence Ministry.

In Washington, the White House rejected the North Korean statement and reiterated a willingness to meet North Korean diplomats “at a time and place convenient for them”.

More than 28 500 American troops are based in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Last year, North Korea conducted a record number of ballistic missile tests, which are banned by UN Security Council resolutions. It was also observed reopening its shuttered nuclear weapons test site, raising expectations of a nuclear test for the first time since 2017. |