DPRK slams joint air drill by US, ROK and Japan

SEOUL — A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea lashed out at the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan for conducting a joint air drill as a "counteraction" and "warning "to the latest strategic weapon test by the DPRK, insisting the country will stick to its policy of bolstering the self-defensive nuclear deterrent, state media reported on Tuesday.

In a Monday media statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, Kim Yo-jong, vice-department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, condemned the trilateral exercises on Sunday involving US strategic bomber B-1B as "another outright action-based explanation of the most hostile and dangerous aggressive nature" of the enemy forces toward the DPRK and "another absolute proof of the validity and urgency" of the country's policy line of building up its nuclear forces.

The statement also mentioned previous military drills like Freedom Edge, the first multi-domain joint military exercises between the US, Japan and the ROK, and Iron Mace, a nuclear operation drill simulating an all-out nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula, as well as record-breaking deployment of US nuclear strategic assets to the peninsula, saying the drastically increased number of war rehearsals has posed a serious threat to the country and regional peace and security.

The statement stressed that the DPRK will never vacillate in pursuit of its policy line of bolstering the self-defensive nuclear deterrent, calling it "the most correct, one and only choice under the current situation", the KCNA reported.

The ROK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the ROK, the US and Japan held a joint air drill involving the US strategic bomber on Sunday, in response to the DPRK's test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Oct 31.

Pyongyang fired several short-range ballistic missiles early Tuesday, Seoul's military said. The ROK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launch of the missiles at around 7:30 am into waters east of the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK has so far made no response to the development.

Agencies - Xinhua