Published: 12 Mar. 2025, 09:47
Military helicopters prepare to take off at the U.S. Forces Korea's Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, on March 10, as South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual springtime Freedom Shield exercise. [YONHAP]
Military helicopters prepare to take off at the U.S. Forces Korea's Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, on March 10, as South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual springtime Freedom Shield exercise. [YONHAP]
North Korea on Wednesday continued to denounce joint military drills by South Korea and the United States, claiming South Korean jet fighters' latest accidental bombing of a village was an "ominous" sign that points to the danger of the exercise.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary that the enemies should immediately stop their "nuclear war" simulation as Seoul and Washington kicked off the annual springtime Freedom Shield exercise Monday for an 11-day run.
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North Korea called attention to two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets' accidental dropping of eight bombs on a village near the inter-Korean border during live-fire drills Thursday. The accident, blamed on pilot error, left 31 people injured, including 19 civilians.
"The enemies should not give a sigh of relief, but they should take seriously an ominous sign of the dangerous U.S.-S. Korea joint military drills and immediately stop a nuclear war simulation, the root cause for the worsening security situation on the Korean Peninsula," the KCNA said.
North Korea said the bombing accident occurred days before the start of the joint military exercise in an area just south of the border, claiming if one of the bombs had dropped slightly northward past the border, it could have yielded a disastrous outcome.
North Korea warned it would not require a "far-fetched imagination" to believe a new armed conflict could occur on the Korean Peninsula with an "accidental spark of fire."
"We are closely watching even a single military act by the enemies to cope with any sudden development of situations. In case of emergency, we will move to ruthless action without warning," North Korea said.
North Korea has long denounced the allies' joint military drills as rehearsals for an invasion and uses them as a pretext for provocations. South Korea and the U.S. have said their exercises are defensive in nature.
The North fired multiple close-range ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Monday in an apparent protest against the allies' military drills, the first known ballistic missile test since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Yonhap