The North Korean military said its response to the U.S.-South Korea war drills will be “determined and overwhelming,” state media reported Monday.
The warning came after a series of North Korean weapons tests last week – including an intercontinental ballistic missile – as the United States and South Korea conducted their largest air force exercise to date.
The United States and South Korea have warned such missile launches could culminate in a nuclear test by North Korea.
The North Korean military, officially known as the Korean People’s Army (KPA), said it responded to Vigilant Storm – the US-South Korean exercise – describing it as an “open provocation,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Vigilant Storm aimed to intentionally escalate tensions in the region and target a dangerous war exercise of a very aggressive nature directly at North Korea,” the KPA said.
North Korea will respond to any “war drills against the DPRK” with “persistent, resolute and overwhelming” measures, it said.
The United States has dismissed criticism of the exercise as North Korean propaganda, saying it poses no threat to other nations.
The KPA said it conducted operations including launching tactical ballistic missiles that simulated attacks on air bases and practicing shooting down enemy aircraft.
A ballistic missile was launched to “test a special operational warhead that would cripple the enemy’s operations management system,” the KPA said, without giving further details about the weapon.
The North Korean Air Force also conducted a “large-scale comprehensive combat operation” involving 500 aircraft, according to KCNA.
This mobilization prompted South Korea to arm fighter jets on Friday.
Images of North Korean military operations released by KCNA on Monday showed missiles being fired from various undisclosed locations, including some from mobile launchers.
– Weak Air Force –
Experts say Pyongyang is particularly sensitive to drills like Vigilant Storm because its air force is one of the weakest links in its military, lacking high-tech jets and well-trained pilots.
The details of North Korea’s operations over the past week show the importance it attaches to destroying air bases in the south, said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at Seoul’s Sejong Institute.
“North Korea considers it important to attack and neutralize air bases first because their air force is weak,” Cheong told AFP.
Compared to North Korea’s aging fleet, Vigilant Storm saw some of the most advanced US and South Korean fighter jets in action, including F-35 stealth fighters.
The exercise was scheduled to take place Monday through Friday last week, but Washington and Seoul extended it by a day in response to the spate of North Korean missile launches.
Two US Air Force B-1Bs – long-range heavy bombers – joined the exercises in a show of force.
The joint exercises between the US and South Korea have long drawn backlash from North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.
Pyongyang has notably condemned past deployments of US strategic weapons such as long-range bombers and aircraft carrier strike groups.
Parts of the KPA statement, including claims that it could contradict the “theory of superiority” of the US and South Korean air forces, are domestic propaganda, said Park Won-gon, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“North Korea is said to have responded adequately to the largest joint exercises between Seoul and Washington and prevailed.”
South Korea on Monday began its annual computer-simulated military exercise in Taegeuk aimed at improving its ability to respond to various North Korean threats.
