North Korea has threatened to respond to the United States-led military drills with South Korea. The North Korean dictatorship vowed to take “all necessary measures” to defend itself, while also claiming that the joint aerial drills are in preparation for a nuclear strike on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
A statement from a foreign ministry official cited in KCNA describes “an aggression-type war exercise with the basic purpose of hitting strategic targets of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” which presents the risk of “serious confrontation with great powers.”
“Nowhere in the world can we find a military exercise with an aggressive character like the joint military exercise held by the United States and its followers in terms of duration, scale, content, and density,” the foreign ministry official continued.
“The US nuclear war script against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has entered the final stage,” the official claimed, as cited in Russian media.
The ministry then warned that “if the US continuously persists in the grave military provocations, the DPRK will take into account more powerful follow-up measures.” Seoul and Washington have been warning since the summer that the north is undergoing preparations for a nuclear test, which would be the first since 2017, according to a report by ZeroHedge.