Pyongyang rattles saber over joint air exercise

KF-16 fighters from the South Korean Air Force prepare to take off from Kunsan Air Base in Gunsan, North Jeolla on Tuesday. [REPUBLIC OF KOREA AIR FORCE]

North Korea blasted a South Korea-U.S. joint air force exercise that began Monday and threatened to take “all necessary measures” in response, raising concerns the regime could conduct a serious provocation.

In a Monday statement by an unnamed spokesman for its foreign ministry, Pyongyang said that it would “take into account more powerful follow-up measures” if the United States “continuously persists in the grave military provocations.”

South Korea and the United States started a large joint air exercise dubbed Vigilant Storm on Monday, mobilizing more than 240 aircraft including F-35A stealth fighters, F-15K jets and KF-16 jets from the South Korean Air Force and F-35B stealth fighters, EA-18 electronic warfare aircraft, KC-135 tankers and U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft from the U.S. military.

In the same statement, the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman criticized South Korea’s recent Hoguk-22 field exercise, which ran from Oct. 17 to 28, the joint South Korea-U.S. Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise that took place in August and the allies’ joint maritime exercise in late September.

The naval exercise saw the deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to the East Sea and the nuclear-powered submarine USS Annapolis to bolster the two countries’ naval readiness, and particularly their submarine-tracking abilities.

The allies’ defense officials previously said that the joint exercises are meant to enhance their defensive readiness for all situations, including an attack by the North.

But Pyongyang’s foreign ministry spokesman claimed in Monday’s statement that the exercises “clearly show that the U.S. nuclear war scenario against the DPRK has entered the final stage,” referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The regime’s spokesman warned South Korea and the U.S. to “immediately abandon the war practice, or they will be fully responsible for all future consequences."

It remains unknown if the “more powerful follow-up measures” mentioned in the statement implied that the regime would raise tensions by conducting a nuclear test, which South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials have worried about for several months, or a larger-scale version of other actions Pyongyang has already undertaken this year, such as a ballistic missile launch.

It is also unclear if the statement’s description of the ongoing joint exercise as the “final stage” of the “U.S. nuclear war scenario” reflects an actual belief held by Pyongyang, or a rhetorical device to justify another act that could heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a press briefing on Monday that Washington remains committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, despite statements by regime leader Kim Jong-un that his country would never give up its nuclear weapons.

“There has been no change to U.S. policy,” Price said.

“Our DPRK policy remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we continue to be open to diplomacy with the DPRK.”

Price also rejected the possibility of the United States recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state in response to a question, saying, “I do not foresee that ever becoming our policy.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]