Arab News Japan

TOKYO: North Korea has termed the use of American B-1B bombers around the Korean Peninsula as “a blatant threat to the security of our country and a serious provocation that raises regional military tensions to an extremely dangerous level.”

A spokesman for North Korea’s Ministry of National Defense issued a statement on Wednesday, which said, “The reckless bluffing of the United States is a futile act that only increases the threat to the security of its own mainland.”

The North objected to the use of the B-1B bomber during “a provocative joint air exercise” between the United States and South Korea. It said the exercise with the B-1B increased the level of military tension and “instilled the atmosphere of hostile confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.”

It added that the deployment by the United States of strategic bombers, nuclear submarines, and aircraft carriers around the Korean Peninsula “is a process of improving proficiency in tactics and procedures to attack our country.”

“By using our overwhelming deterrence, we will continue to make them realize that the development of unannounced strategic means is a reckless and unnecessary abuse of power, and the higher the level of provocation against us, the more serious the risk of retaliation.”

It concluded: “The armed forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is using powerful means to deter the aggressive attempts of the United States to permanently establish try malicious and unstable elements in the local security environment.”