Seoul: A day after the US flew a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber in a show of strength against North Korea, the influential sister of North Korea's leader warned on Tuesday that her country was ready to take "swift, heavy action" against the United States. ready for. and South Korea.
Monday's B-52 bomber training exercise between the US and South Korea was the latest in recent months between the allies. Later this month, his forces will resume their largest-ever field exercise.
Although Kim Yo Jong did not make any specific mention of any intended action in her statement, North Korea has a history of missile tests in response to US-South Korean military exercises as it views them as a practice offensive.
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Kim Yo Jong said in the statement, "We keep our eyes on the aggressive activities of the US forces and the South Korean military and remain on standby to take appropriate, prompt and forceful action at any time according to our judgment." state media.
She said that "North Korea has undoubtedly been given the conditions to be forced to do something with them" by the aggressive rhetoric and demonstrative military actions of the US and South Korea, which are so frantic that they will not be missed.
After the training on Monday, South Korea's defense ministry said the B-52 deployment proved the Allies' ability to successfully thwart North Korean aggression.
Earlier this year, the US made some deployment of long-range American B-1B bombers or several B-1Bs to the peninsula. In an exercise last month in Washington, the US and South Korea also practiced responding to nuclear threats from North Korea.
The South Korean and US armies announced last Friday that their largest-ever springtime field exercises, last held in 2018, would be resumed with computer-simulated command post training from March 13-23.
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Since 2018, the allies have scaled down or stopped some of their regular exercises with North Korea to support their hitherto dormant diplomatic efforts and prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic.
But they have been ramping up their drills ever since North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests and openly threatened to use its nuclear weapons in future conflicts with its rivals.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, North Korea's Foreign Ministry described the US B-52 bomber flyover as a reckless provocation that had pushed the situation on the peninsula "deeper into a bottomless quagmire".
According to a statement by the unnamed head of the ministry's foreign news office, there is no guarantee that violent physical conflict will not occur if the US-South Korean military provocation continues.
When tensions with the United States and South Korea are at their height, North Korea often uses toxic rhetoric. According to observers, North Korea could take two possible actions, one of which is a nuclear test or the launch of an entirely new intercontinental ballistic missile aimed at the US mainland.
Kim Yo Jong last month threatened to make the Pacific a firing range for the North. He claimed in a statement on Tuesday that North Korea would view any US attempt to stop North Korea's ICBMs as a declaration of war. He cited a South Korean media report that claimed the US military intended to shoot down a North Korean ICBM if it was tested over the Pacific.
To avoid neighboring countries, all of North Korea's known ICBM tests have been conducted at sharp angles, and all missiles have landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.
South Korea on Monday took a step to resolve a contentious historical disagreement with Japan in an effort to strengthen trilateral security cooperation between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington.
The next step entails a strategy that compensates Koreans subjected to forced labor during Tokyo's colonial rule with local funds without requiring Japanese corporations to contribute to reparations.
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US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel praised the leaders of South Korea and Japan on Monday, saying they "realized you have to deal with historical issues" and that "the potential for future cooperation is more important and has more value." ,