The US held aerial drills with South Korea and Japan in a show of force a day after North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile test, as tit-for-tat military moves added to simmering tensions in the region.
(Bloomberg) — The US held aerial drills with South Korea and Japan in a show of force a day after North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile test, as tit-for-tat military moves added to simmering tensions in the region.
South Korea and the US flew B-1B bombers escorted by their fighter jets on Sunday in the joint air drill, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said in a text message. The aircrafts entered South Korea’s air defense identification zone.
American bombers and US and Japan fighter jets took part in a separate exercise, Kyodo reported. North Korea’s Hwasong-15 ICBM landed in waters within Japan’s exclusive economic zone on Saturday.
The missile launch and aerial drills were a reminder of the growing strains in the Asia Pacific just as senior government officials were debating global security at a key annual conference in Munich. North Korea issued new warnings to the US after the launch, while the White House condemned the test and said it “will take all necessary measures” to ensure its security and that of allies South Korea and Japan.
North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles under international sanctions imposed for its nuclear arms development. The Hwasong-15 reached a maximum altitude of 5,768.5 kilometers (3,584 miles) and flew for 989 kilometers, the official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday, adding the surprise drill is “a guarantee for and a clear proof of the sure reliability of our powerful physical nuclear deterrent.”
“The US would be well-advised to stop saying that it is not hostile toward the DPRK and the door to dialogue is open, hoodwinking the world,” Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in comments carried by KCNA. “It should stop all the actions posing threats to the security of our state.”
The US has conducted joint drills with its allies in the region in the past to respond to North Korean provocations. Pyongyang for decades has denounced the joint drills as a prelude to an invasion and war.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office in May, brought back joint military exercises with the US. The drills had been scaled down or halted under former President Donald Trump, who was hoping the move would facilitate his nuclear negotiations with Kim.
Last month, the US and South Korea said they would step up the scale of their joint military exercises, and expand cooperation that includes Japan to better share information and coordinate responses to provocations from North Korea.
“The latest launch was an outrageous act that was an escalatory provocation against the entire international community,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Saturday.
Kim pledged to increase his nuclear arsenal in the new year to stifle what he called US and South Korean hostile acts, in a policy-setting address released on Jan. 1 where he left almost no opening for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks.
Earlier in February, North Korea put on its biggest display of ICBMs during a military parade in Pyongyang. Kim oversaw the event, and the attendance of his daughter signaled there’s another generation ready to take over the Cold War’s last continuous family dynasty and it will depend on nuclear weapons for its survival.
–With assistance from Sangmi Cha.
(Updates with South Korea-US air force drills details)
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