U.S. vows to ensure readiness against North's threats

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U.S. vows to ensure readiness against North's threats

South Korean Marines take part in the ongoing South Korea-U.S. Ssangyong amphibious landing exercise on a beach in Pohang, North Gyeongsang on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

South Korean Marines take part in the ongoing South Korea-U.S. Ssangyong amphibious landing exercise on a beach in Pohang, North Gyeongsang on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

 
The United States will continue to ensure its readiness to defend itself and regional allies against North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile capabilities, White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday (local time).
 
Earlier, North Korea’s state media reported that leader Kim Jong-un had inspected previously unseen tactical nuclear warheads and called for increased production of fissile material to expand his regime’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
 
Speaking at a virtual press briefing, Kirby declined to share U.S. intelligence assessments regarding North Korea’s nuclear or missile capabilities but said Washington has not changed in its “desire to sit down with the regime in Pyongyang without precondition to find a diplomatic way forward to the verifiable denuclearization of the peninsula.”
 
But the NSC spokesman also blamed Pyongyang for not showing “any willingness” to respond to entreaties to dialogue from Washington.
 
“So, we do what we must do, which is to meet our treaty requirements or security requirements there on the peninsula and the region,” Kirby said, adding the United States “will continue to make sure that we have the appropriate military capabilities and the appropriate readiness to use those capabilities, if need be, to protect our national security interests and those of our allies.”
 
While the North’s state media has denounced recent and ongoing joint military exercises by South Korea and the United States as rehearsals for invasion, Kirby emphasized the drills help maintain the allies’ “readiness capabilities.”
 
South Korea and the United States are currently in the middle of their large-scale Ssangyong joint amphibious landing exercise, which involves large numbers of personnel, landing ships, stealth fighters and helicopters.
 
Part of the drills, which are due to end April 3, were opened to media observers on Wednesday.  
 
South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Kim Seung-kyum attended part of the Ssangyong exercise, as did Gen. Paul LaCamera, commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, and South Korean Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lee Jong-ho.
 
Col. Yoo Chang-hoon, a South Korean Marine Corps official, said that the joint exercise “will further strengthen our combined defense posture capable of immediately punishing any enemy provocation,” while Capt. Kevin Buss of the U.S. 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit told reporters that the exercise “is designed to build allied capacity and enhance Indo-Pacific regional security through combined, integrated naval power.”  
 
The drills involve division-level landing forces and approximately 30 vessels, including the amphibious assault ships ROKS Dokdo and USS Makin Island.
 
The allies have also mobilized 70 aircraft, including F-35B stealth fighters and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and around 50 amphibious assault vehicles for the Ssangyong exercise.
 
The Ssangyong exercise has been criticized by the North’s state media for its perceived “offensive” nature.
 
North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri claimed Saturday that "anyone knows" that "the amphibious landing has an offensive nature rather than being defensive,” while another propaganda outlet, Meari, blamed “hostile” forces, including the United States, for bringing the situation on the peninsula to a “perilous” point that could spark a war.
 

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