As the nuclear-armed North steps up threats and launches a balloon blitz against Seoul, the US military said on Thursday that ongoing air drills with South Korea will “sharpen” their joint fighting capabilities.
Joint air force exercises between Seoul and Washington, comprising US F/A-18 and F-35B combat aircraft, began Tuesday in Suwon, south of Seoul, and will last for around three weeks.
According to a statement from US Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Jarrod Allen, the exercises “will further sharpen our combat capabilities.
Joint US-South Korea drills usually irritate Pyongyang, which sees them as invasion preparations. The North is especially sensitive to fighter jet exercises because, according to experts, its air force is its most vulnerable military component.
With Seoul’s military blasting K-pop and anti-regime messages from border loudspeakers and the North flying thousands of trash-carrying balloons south, relations between the two Koreas are at an all-time low.
In response to remarks made by former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president in November, who highlighted his ties to Kim Jong Un, the North declared on Wednesday that it was “fully ready for all-out confrontation with the U.S.
Donald Trump stated “I think he misses me” and that it’s “nice to get along with somebody that has a lot of nuclear weapons.”
During his presidency, Trump held three meetings with Kim, starting with a historic summit in Singapore in June 2018, although neither leader achieved significant progress toward the North’s denuclearization.
A few months following Singapore, Trump made headlines when he said to a crowd of his fans that the two men were “in love.
However, the issues of sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be prepared to give up in exchange caused their second summit in Hanoi to collapse in 2019.
While it is true that Trump attempted to highlight the “special personal relations” between heads of state, North Korea said in a statement released on Wednesday that the former US president “did not bring about any substantial positive change”.
Even if any administration takes office in the US, the political climate, which is confused by the infighting of the two parties, does not change and, accordingly, we do not care about this,” it stated.
