Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

N Korea warns US, S Korea against joint war exercise

SEOUL — North Korea warned yesterday that the United States will be “pouring gasoline on fire” by conducting an annual war game in the South this week amid heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

South Korean soldiers taking part in an anti-terror drill as part of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise last year. The annual war game between Washington and Seoul dates back to 1976. Photo: AP

South Korean soldiers taking part in an anti-terror drill as part of the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise last year. The annual war game between Washington and Seoul dates back to 1976. Photo: AP

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SEOUL — North Korea warned yesterday that the United States will be “pouring gasoline on fire” by conducting an annual war game in the South this week amid heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

Combative rhetoric between the nations spiked after Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that appeared to bring much of the US within range, sparking a warning by President Donald Trump that Washington could rain “fire and fury” on the North.

Pyongyang then threatened to fire a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam — a plan that leader Kim Jong-un last week delayed, but warned could go ahead depending on Washington’s next move.

Amid the fiery volley of threats, Seoul and Washington will today begin the Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) joint military exercises involving tens of thousands of troops, which Pyongyang views as a highly provocative rehearsal for an invasion.

“The joint exercise is the most explicit expression of hostility against us, and no one can guarantee that the exercise won’t evolve into actual fighting,” said an editorial carried by the North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper. “The Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises will be like pouring gasoline on fire and worsen the state of the peninsula.”

Warning of an “uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war” on the peninsula, it added: “If the United States is lost in a fantasy that war on the peninsula is at somebody else’s doorstep, far away from them across the Pacific, it is far more mistaken than ever.”

Seoul and Washington have said the largely computer-simulated UFG exercise, which dates back to 1976, will go ahead as planned, but did not comment on whether the drills would be scaled back in an effort to ease tensions.

About 17,500 US troops will participate in this year’s drills — a cutback from last year’s 25,000 — according to numbers provided by Seoul’s Defence Ministry.

But South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the allies were thinking of scrapping an initial plan to bring in two aircraft carriers to the peninsula to take part in the drill, which will run through to Aug 31.

But that possibility worries some, who say it would send the wrong message to both North Korea and the South, where there are fears that the North’s advancing nuclear capabilities may eventually undermine a decades-long alliance with the US.

“If anything, the joint exercises must be strengthened,” said Mr Cheon Seong-whun, who served as a national security adviser to former conservative South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

South Korea’s top military officer said yesterday that the current security situation on the peninsula was “more serious than at any other time” amid the North’s growing nuclear and missile threats, and warned Pyongyang of merciless retaliation against any attack.

“If the enemy provokes, (our military) will retaliate resolutely and strongly to make it regret bitterly,” said General Jeong Kyeong-doo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his inauguration speech. AGENCIES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.