Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, already high, escalated dramatically over the weekend, when a pair of US B-1B supersonic bombers joined a US-South Korean exercise and North Korea responded with more missile and artillery firings and air force exercises of its own. All of this escalation followed the meeting of the US-South Korea Consultative Meeting, held at the Pentagon on Nov. 3 and led by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and South Korean Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-Sup. At the meeting, the two sides agreed “to further strengthen the Alliance’s capabilities, information sharing, and consultation process, as well as joint planning and execution, to deter and respond to DPRK’s advancing nuclear and missile threats.”
On Nov. 7, KCNA, North Korea’s official news agency, released a statement attributed to the Korean People’s Army general staff “explaining” North Korea’s military actions from Nov. 2 to Nov. 5 as a response to the extensive air drills conducted by the US and South Korea. “The recent corresponding military operations by the KPA are a clear answer of the DPRK that the more persistently the enemies’ provocative military moves continue, the more thoroughly and mercilessly the KPA will counter them,” the KPA statement said. “This is the principle and direction of action of the DPRK’s armed forces in the future, too.”
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a briefing on Nov. 7, dismissed the KPA statement, because it failed to mention an ICBM launch which the South Korean military assessed to have been a failure. The JCS also said that the participation of the B-1Bs in the joint drills demonstrated the allies’ readiness to sternly respond to North Korean provocations and the U.S. commitment to defend its ally with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear.
