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North Korea threatens to give an unpredictable and violent response to the US-South Korea joint war games. Photo/KCNA via REUTERS
PYONGYANG – North Korea (North Korea) threatening an unpredictable response to the upcoming joint US-South Korean (South Korean) war games.
Pyongyang describes the joint maneuvers as preparations to invade North Korea.
The threat comes ahead of next week’s joint Washington-Seoul war games, in which the two countries will discuss responses to Pyongyang’s use of nuclear weapons.
“The exercises planned for this year are only out of fear and excuse… in preparation for a war of aggression,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement released by state media.
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“Should Washington and Seoul resume the drills, they will face unexpectedly strong and persistent resistance,” the statement continued.
Under the hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea has stepped up military exercises with the United States, which have been scaled back during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The maneuvers were also halted due to ill-fated diplomacy with Pyongyang under Yoon Suk Yeol’s predecessor.
The Yoon administration is eager to reassure an increasingly nervous South Korean public about Washington’s commitment to deter Pyongyang, which last year declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and conducted a number of weapons tests.
A South Korean Defense Ministry official told AFP next week’s joint war games would focus on joint planning, joint management and joint response with Washington’s nuclear assets in the event of a nuclear attack by Pyongyang.
“Pyongyang’s aggressive statements reflect the importance of this exercise,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
According to him, the exercise will be an important criterion of the extent to which the US nuclear arsenal will be involved in repelling North Korea.
Pyongyang has repeatedly said it is not interested in further talks, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently called for an “exponential” increase in his country’s nuclear arsenal.
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