Shooting down our ICBMs would be an act of war: North

North Korea

Published: 07 Mar. 2023, 15:39

Shooting down our ICBMs would be an act of war: North

A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber flies at the front of a formation with South Korean KF-15 Slam Eagle strike fighters (above) and F-16K Fighting Falcon fighters (below) in the skies above the West Sea on Monday. [DEFENSE MINISTRY]

The sister of North Korea’s leader said that any move by the United States to intercept the regime’s missiles would be considered “a declaration of war,” Pyongyang’s state media reported Tuesday.

The statement by Kim Yo-jong referred to a South Korean media report that said the United States plans to shoot down Pyongyang’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) if they are launched into the Pacific Ocean.

While the North has previously launched missiles over Japan — most recently in October last year — the regime typically fires them on lofted trajectories so they avoid neighboring countries.

The majority of missiles fired by North Korea in the past year have landed in the East Sea.

But in her statement, Kim said, “The Pacific Ocean does not belong to the dominion of the United States or Japan,” making it clear that the North sees missile launches into international waters farther away as fair game.

Last month, Kim also issued a statement saying that the frequency of North Korean launches into the Pacific will depend on the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

Kim warned that the regime would watch upcoming large-scale joint exercises by South Korea and the United States and could choose to respond forcefully.

“We keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the South Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment,” she said.

South Korea and the United States are gearing up to conduct large-scale joint military exercises later this month.

The allies started their four-day crisis management training exercise on Monday, which is to be followed by the 11-day Freedom Shield main command post exercise and the concurrent Warrior Shield field training exercise beginning March 13.

Freedom Shield is a computer-simulated training exercise aimed at strengthening the allied defense and response capabilities, while Warrior Shield will entail amphibious landing drills.

The allies also conducted a joint air force drill on Monday, which South Korea's Defense Ministry called a show of force against the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

The Defense Ministry said that a U.S. B-52 Stratofortress long-range bomber joined South Korean F-16K Fighting Falcon fighters and KF-15 Slam Eagle strike fighters for the drill, which took place in the skies above the Korean Peninsula.

The B-52, capable of flying at high altitudes at subsonic speeds and dropping nuclear weapons, is considered the backbone of the U.S. bomber plane force.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the flyover of the US B-52 bomber “a reckless military provocation” that pushes tensions on the peninsula “deeper into the bottomless quagmire” in a separate statement carried by the KCNA Tuesday.

In the statement, an unnamed chief of the ministry’s foreign news office said the regime could make “no guarantee that there will be no violent physical conflict” if joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises continue.

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