North Korea's defense ministry has accused South Korea and the United States of raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula with their joint military drills, warning the North would deter any aggressive attempt by the allies.
The North's defense ministry issued the warning in a statement dated Wednesday, a day after South Korea and the US conducted joint air drills involving US B-1B bombers over the peninsula in a show of force against North Korean military threats.
The North's ministry called the deployment a "reckless and unnecessary abuse of strength" and "a grave provocation" that raises regional military tension to "an extreme dangerous level."
The ministry accused the US of "openly deploying nuclear submarine, strategic bomber, aircraft carrier and other strategic assets" to the peninsula at a new record level, saying such deployments have "been fixed as a routine military practice."
The ministry warned that the US' "bluffing" military action will "inevitably bring serious negative consequences" to its own security situation.
"The DPRK will exercise the overwhelming deterrence ... and get the US realize by itself that the higher the level of provocation against the DPRK is, the greater the level of danger returning to the US will be," the defense ministry added.
DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
The latest South Korea-US exercise marks the third deployment of the US B-1B bomber to or near the Korean Peninsula this year, including in February, when the allies staged similar drills.
Tuesday's exercise also involved South Korean F-35A and F-16 fighter jets, as well as US F-16s, and was aimed at demonstrating the allies' capabilities to respond to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats, according to South Korea's defense ministry. (Yonhap)
