SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has warned that the United States and South Korea will face “unprecedented” security challenges if they do not stop their hostile military pressure campaign against the North, including joint military drills.
North Korea views any regular military training between the US and South Korea as an invasion exercise even though the allies have steadfastly said they have no intention of attacking the North. The latest warning came as Washington and Seoul prepare to expand their upcoming summer training following the North’s provocative run of missile tests this year.
“If the US and its allies choose a military conflict with us, they would face unprecedented security instability,” said Choe Jin, deputy director general of the Institute for Disarmament and Peace, a think tank run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Associated Press TV News in Pyongyang on Thursday.
Choe said Washington and Seoul’s joint military exercises this year are driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war. He accused US and South Korean officials of conspiring to discuss the use of US strategic nuclear assets during another joint exercise that will begin next month.
“The United States should keep in mind that it will be treated on an equal basis when it threatens us with nukes,” Choe said. He said Washington must abandon “its anachronistic and suicidal policy of hostility” toward North Korea or face an “unpleasant outcome.”
Regular military drills between the United States and South Korea are a major source of hostility on the Korean Peninsula, with North Korea often responding with missile tests or belligerent rhetoric.
In May, US President Joe Biden and new South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said after their summit that they would consider expanded joint military exercises to deter North Korea’s nuclear threats. Biden also reaffirmed America’s extended deterrence commitment to South Korea, a reference to the full range of US defense capabilities including nuclear ones.
Their announcement reflected a change of direction from their predecessors. Former US President Donald Trump complained about the cost of US-South Korean military drills, while former South Korean President Moon Jae-in faced criticism that his tame engagement policy only helped North Korea buy time to perfect its weapons technology. He accused Yoon Moon of veering toward North Korea and away from the United States.
The US and South Korean militaries have not officially announced details of their summer drills including when exactly they would begin. But South Korean defense officials said the exercises would include field training for the first time since 2018 along with computer-simulated tabletop exercises.
In recent years, the South Korean and US militaries have canceled or scaled back some of their regular exercises due to concerns about COVID-19 and to support now-suspended US-led diplomacy aimed at of convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear program in exchange for economic and political benefits.
The US has called on North Korea to resume stalled diplomacy without any preconditions, but North Korea has countered that it will not return to talks unless the US first drops its hostile policies against it, in an apparent reference to his military drills with South Korea and the economic sanctions.
This year, North Korea has launched a series of ballistic missiles including nuclear-capable ones designed to attack the US mainland and South Korea in defiance of UN resolutions banning such tests. Observers say North Korea wants to be recognized as a nuclear state and win sanctions relief.
Choe reiterated North Korea’s previous position that its missile tests were legitimate exercises of its sovereign right to defend the country. He called recent US and South Korean missile tests “double standards.”
North Korea has yet to carry out its widely anticipated nuclear test, the first of its kind in five years. Seoul officials say an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 and opposition from China, its most important ally and biggest aid provider, are likely reasons why North Korea has not carried out the bomb test.
On Friday, Yoon told reporters that North Korea remains ready to conduct a nuclear test and that South Korea has measures ready to cope with it as well.
