South Korea and the United States continue to raise their voices against North Korea. The two allies organized joint aerial maneuvers on Wednesday (February 1st), including an American strategic bomber and stealth fighter jets, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Thursday.
The planes flew over the Yellow Sea, located between the Korean peninsula and China, in the first such exercises this year, the agency said, citing the South Korean military.
The show of force comes after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart announced an increase in such maneuvers and increased security cooperation.
A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman reacted by saying that the United States "will initiate an all-out confrontation" with Pyongyang, according to state news agency KCNA.
A broad, strong and credible deterrent
These maneuvers involved a B-1B strategic bomber, US Air Force F-22 and F-35B stealth fighter jets and South Korean Air Force F-35A fighter jets, according to the same source.
"These combined air exercises demonstrate the willingness and ability of the United States to provide a broad, strong, and credible deterrent against nuclear and missile threats from North Korea," the South Korean Defense Ministry added as quoted by Yonhap. . Seoul wants to convince its increasingly worried public of Washington's commitment to its side, after a year in which North Korea proclaimed itself an "irreversible" nuclear power and carried out a record number of missile tests.
Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup agreed to "expand and enhance the level and scale" of joint military exercises, in light of Pyongyang's "continued provocations", including a recent drone incursion, they said in a statement.
All joint military maneuvers between the United States and South Korea infuriate Pyongyang, which sees them as a rehearsal for a possible invasion and has often responded with threats and drills from its side.
