The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned on Tuesday that the country is ready to take “swift and overwhelming action” against the United States and South Korea as the allies expand their regular military exercises.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement came a day after the United States flew a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to the Korean peninsula for a joint drill with South Korean fighter jets. The US and South Korean militaries are also preparing to restart their largest field exercises later this month.
“We remain vigilant about the restless military movements of the US forces and the South Korean puppet army and are always ready to take appropriate, swift and overwhelming measures at any time at our discretion,” Kim Yo Jong said in a released statement. by state media.
He did not elaborate on any planned action, but North Korea has often conducted missile tests in response to US and South Korean military exercises because it views them as an invasion rehearsal.
“The demonstrative military moves and all kinds of rhetoric by the United States and South Korea, which are so extremely frenzied that they cannot be ignored, undoubtedly provide (North Korea) the conditions to be forced to do something to confront them.” , said. .
Monday’s flyby of the B-52 bomber was the latest in a series of air exercises between the United States and South Korea involving powerful US aircraft. The United States deployed one US B-1B long-range bomber or multiple B-1Bs to the peninsula multiple times earlier this year. South Korea said those exercises demonstrated the allies’ ability to make a decisive response to possible North Korean aggression.
Last Friday, the South Korean and US militaries announced they would conduct computer-simulated command post training from March 13-23 and restore their larger spring field exercises that were last held. time in 2018.
The allies have canceled or scaled back some of their regular drills since 2018 to support the now dormant diplomacy with North Korea and guard against the COVID-19 pandemic. But they have been resuming their exercises after North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests last year and openly threatened to use its nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with its rivals.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry called the overflight of the US B-52 bomber a reckless provocation pushing the situation on the peninsula “into a bottomless quagmire.” The statement, attributed to the unnamed head of the ministry’s foreign affairs news bureau, said “there is no guarantee that there will not be violent physical conflict” if military provocations between the United States and South Korea continue.
North Korea often unleashes fiery rhetoric in times of heightened animosity with the United States and South Korea. Possible steps North Korea could take include a nuclear test or the launch of a new type of ICBM aimed at the mainland United States, observers say.
Last month, Kim Yo Jong threatened to make the Pacific the firing range of the North. In his statement Tuesday, he said North Korea would regard a possible US attempt to intercept a North Korean ICBM as a declaration of war. He cited a South Korean media report saying the US military plans to shoot down a North Korean ICBM if it is test-fired into the Pacific.
All of North Korea’s known ICBM tests have been conducted at steep angles to avoid neighboring countries, with the weapons landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
