North Korea Condemns US, South Korea Joint Military Drill

(MENAFN) North Korea has fiercely criticized the most recent collaborative military maneuvers carried out by the United States and South Korea, according to a report from a news agency on Thursday.

The North Korean Defense Ministry described the military activity—which included US B-1B and F-16 bombers operating alongside South Korean F-35A and F-16 jets over the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday—as a "grave provocation."

These drills were intended as a powerful demonstration of the allies' ability to counter North Korea’s "advancing nuclear and missile threats," stated South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

Pyongyang further accused both Washington and Seoul of worsening instability in the region through their joint military actions.

It issued a stern warning that any perceived hostile moves would be met with firm resistance.

Labeling the show of force as a "reckless and unnecessary abuse of strength" and reiterating that it was "a grave provocation," North Korea’s defense authority claimed that such military demonstrations elevate tensions in the region to "an extreme dangerous level."

The ministry went on to charge the US with "openly deploying nuclear submarine, strategic bomber, aircraft carrier and other strategic assets" to the peninsula in unprecedented numbers, noting that such mobilizations have now "been fixed as a routine military practice."

North Korea cautioned that the US's "bluffing" military approach would "inevitably bring serious negative consequences" for its own security.

Lastly, the ministry emphasized that North Korea “will exercise the overwhelming deterrence and get the US to realize by itself that the higher the level of provocation against the DPRK is, the greater the level of danger returning to the US will be," referring to the nation’s formal designation, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

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