
TOKYO: North Korea reacted negatively on Tuesday to exercises between the United States and South Korea and criticized the flying of a B52 bomber over the Korean Peninsula.
“The United States continues to deliberately intensify the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the region,” the director of the Foreign Press Office of the Foreign Ministry of (North) Korea said.
“The United States and South Korea have turned their backs on the aspirations of the international community for easing tensions and stabilizing the situation and are only absorbed in belligerent demonstrations of force that smell like gunpowder and pose the danger of a nuclear war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula.”
South Korea and the United States are planning military exercises from March 13, which, the North says, “foreshadows the seriousness of the catastrophic intensification of the situation.”
The North called on the international community to “join the peace-loving efforts of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the region.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-Jung, also blasted South Korea and the United States with a statement of her own on Tuesday in response to a statement in the media by a US commander that the US would shoot down any missiles launched into the Pacific Ocean.
“I don’t know if he actually made such a gaffe representing the position of the US military, or if it was just a prank of the puppet media,” Kim said. “I would like to give you a clear advance warning. The Pacific does not belong to the United States or Japan. It will be interesting to see how the US will react if a third country tries to intercept the strategic weapon test launches that the US military conducts from time to time, treating the Pacific Ocean as its own courtyard every year.”
“If you think about how you should respond to such a horrific situation, you will realize how unmanageable and how incredibly insane you have been.”