Tag Archives: South Korea

US Initiates Largest US-South Korean Aerial Drill in History

US stealth fighters arrived in South Korea to launch what is being billed as the “largest US-South Korean aerial drill in history,” set to begin on Monday. The drill, dubbed “Vigilant Ace” aggravated the already explosive nature of the US-North Korean non-relationship, prompting a message from North Korean foreign ministry verging on the hysterical, which said that the US has “nuclear war mania” and that President Donald Trump is “begging for nuclear war.”

The weekend saw several announcements issued from North Korea. The dictatorship’s foreign ministry read a statement on state television that said that the US president and his administration are “begging for nuclear war” by engaging in what is an “extremely dangerous nuclear gamble,” according to CNN.

The foreign ministry also said that if nuclear war did emerge on the Korean peninsula and the rest of the world, that the US would be “fully responsible” because of its “reckless nuclear war mania.”

Later North Korean state TV said in a commentary that the joint US-South Korea joint air exercises are a “dangerous provocation” which will “push the region “to the brink of a nuclear war,” also reported by CNN.

HR McMaster, the White House national security advisor, agrees that tension in the region are rising, and the chances for a nuclear war are also growing.

“I think it’s increasing every day, which means that we are in a race, really, we are in a race to be able to solve this problem,” McMaster said in a conference in California.

McMaster added that he believes North Korea is the “greatest immediate threat to the United States” at the moment.

US Flies Bombers Over South Korea in Response to North Korean Nuclear Test

 

The United States, allying itself with South Korean interests, answered North Korea’s largest nuclear test with sorties over South Korea.

Two US Air Force B-1B Lancer strategic bombers left  Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to send a not so subtle message to North Korea. The US long-range supersonic strategic bombers had company when a few Japanese F-2s joined them in a training exercise to “enhance operational capabilities and the tactical skills of units.”

The skies continued to get crowded as South Korean F-15s and US F-16s joined in for a low-level flight. The show took place not far from the South Korean city of Osan. When the bilateral flight was complete the bombers returned to Andersen.

US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris said in a statement:

“These flights demonstrate the solidarity between South Korea, the United States, and Japan to defend against North Korea’s provocative and destabilizing actions. North Korea continues to blatantly violate its international obligations, threatening the region through an accelerating program of nuclear tests and unprecedented ballistic missile launches that no nation should tolerate. US joint military forces in the Indo-Asia-Pacific are always ready to defend the American homeland. We stand resolutely with South Korea and Japan to honor our unshakable alliance commitments and to safeguard security and stability.”