Pyongyang says future drills may amount to “declaration of war.”
A North Korean diplomat has warned that. if the U.S. goes ahead with periodic deployment of strategic assets. on the peninsula and its plan to hold major military maneuvers with South Korea in March Pionyang could consider these actions a “declaration of war.”
“The only way to avoid the vicious circle of escalation of military tension on the Korean peninsula and the surrounding region is through clear actions,” Kwon Jong-gun, director general for U.S. affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said in a text published Friday by the state-run KCNA news agency.
These actions consist of “U.S. abandon its commitment to deploy strategic assets in South Korea. (the so-called “extended deterrence”) and suspend all kinds of joint exercises against the DPRK (the North’s official name),” he added.
“It must be understood that if the U.S. continues with its hostile and provocative practices against the DPRK despite our repeated protests and warnings, this could be considered as a declaration of war against the DPRK,” Kwon stressed.
Diplomat condemns in writing that Washington has brought before the UN Security Council this week. the regime’s launch last Saturday of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that landed in the waters of Japan’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
Kwon insisted that esuch trials constitute the “legitimate right to self-defense. of a sovereign state” and that the body is ignoring acts that “increase military tension such as the deployment of strategic assets and large-scale joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.”
It also said that the visit this week by South Korean military personnel to a U.S. base for nuclear missile-equipped submarines or the theoretical exercise simulating a North Korean atomic attack conducted by the two countries two days ago (which it calls a “demonstration of nuclear war against us”). “shows how far their confrontational intentions.”
The peninsula is experiencing a historic level of tension following a 2022 in which Pyongyang conducted a record number of weapons tests and in which the allies again conducted major maneuvers and temporarily deployed U.S. strategic assets in the south of the peninsula.
Pionyangwhich has confirmed firing cruise missiles on Thursday (its third launch in the last six days), vowed last week to give an “unprecedented” response. to the major maneuvers that Seoul and Washington plan to conduct in March.
