North Korea has said upcoming U.S. and South Korean military drills are a “serious challenge” to peace on the Korean peninsula, warning of “negative consequences” to exercises it framed as a major threat to its security.
“The military demonstration against the DPRK will certainly have a boomerang effect of plunging the security of the United States and the Republic of Korea into a less safe situation,” Pyongyang’s defense minister, No Kwang Chol, said in a statement published by North Korean state media on Monday, referring to the country by its official title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Why It Matters
North Korea has forged ahead with an intensive military build up and weapons development, for which Western officials and experts believe Russia offered a helping hand. Pyongyang and Moscow have drawn closer to one another after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, a fight to which North Korea has committed thousands of troops and a substantial flow of military supplies.
South Korean soldiers get ready to start in an anti-terror drill as a part of the Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea,…
South Korean soldiers get ready to start in an anti-terror drill as a part of the Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercise between the U.S. and South Korea at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
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AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
U.S. allies close to North Korea, including South Korea and Japan, have looked on with anxiety at Pyongyang’s burgeoning nuclear weapons program, intercontinental ballistic missile tests and the debut of hypersonic designs that have come hand-in-hand with bellicose public statements.
South Korea and Japan both fall under the protection of U.S. nuclear weapons. North Korea regularly denounces U.S. exercises in the region as inflaming tensions.
“This is a routine answer to the regular joint U.S.-ROK military exercises,” said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a professor of international relations at King’s College London.
What To Know
“We strongly denounce the United States and the Republic of Korea for their provocative moves of clearly showing the stand of military confrontation with the DPRK,” the minister said.
The U.S.’s joint military drills with South Korea, dubbed Ulchi Freedom Shield, are held each year and due to kick off on August 18. U.S. and South Korean forces also held another set of drills in March.
U.S. forces stationed in South Korea said the upcoming drills will involve the U.S. Marines blending with Seoul’s troops to form a joint command “to defend South Korea should the need arise.” The soldiers will carry out “virtual defensive exercises,” the U.S. military said.
The exercises have been partially pushed to September due to weather conditions, South Korean media reported. South Korea’s unification minister, Chung Dong-young, had said in late July he would push for the new government in Seoul to “adjust” the drills off the back of a push from the south to restart dialogue with its northern neighbor.
“North Korea won’t be satisfied with the adjustment at all,” Cheong Seong-chang, vice president at the Seoul-based Sejong Institute, specializing in North Korea, told Reuters earlier this month. “What the regime wants is the termination of the drills with the U.S., not a slight rescheduling.”
The 2024 exercises for the first time rehearsed how to respond to a hypothetical North Korean nuclear strike, South Korea’s military said at the time, according to comments carried by domestic media.
Practising how to respond to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs—as well as to nuclear attacks—is a key part of 2025 exercises, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier this month.
“It is the absolute mission of the armed forces of the DPRK to contain offensive movements of the enemy states, counter their military provocations and defend the security of the state and the peace of the region,” No said.
“The armed forces of the DPRK will cope with the war drills of the United States and the Republic of Korea with thoroughgoing and resolute counteraction posture,” the minister said.
Relations between the U.S. and North Korea disintegrated during President Donald Trump‘s first term in office, failing to pull North Korea from its nuclear development.
Trump has indicated he hopes to restart contact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, although Kim Yo-jong — the strongman leader’s powerful sister — said last month the situation had “radically changed” while downplaying the hope of improved relations with the south.
But the door appears to be still open for North Korea to resume communication with the Trump administration, even as the joint drills with the south continue, Pacheco Pardo told Newsweek.
“This underscores that resuming diplomacy with North Korea is going to be difficult,” he added.
What People Are Saying
Pyongyang’s defense minister, No Kwang Chol, said in a statement published by North Korean state media: “The Ulji Freedom Shield to be staged under the simulated conditions of a real nuclear war is not only a direct military provocation against the DPRK but also a real threat to amplify the unpredictability of the situation on the Korean peninsula in the state of armistice and freeze the instability of the regional situation.”
What Happens Next
This month’s round of the joint drills are expected to take place from August 18 until August 28.