US Starts Another Round of War Games in Korean Peninsula
North Korea Has Called the Drills a “War of Aggression Exercise”
The US and South Korea began yet another military drill in the Korean Peninsula this week, further heightening the possibility of nuclear confrontation and threatening peace and stability in the region.
The Ulchi Freedom Shield, as the exercise is called, allegedly aims to strengthen both countries’ joint “defense capabilities” against nuclear power North Korea, as stated by the spokespersons of both nations earlier this month.
Started on earth 19 August, the drill is divided into two phases and will continue until 29 August. The first phase of the drill will include computer-simulated war games, including a drill of a possible nuclear attack involving civilians.
The drill will also use live fire and 48 different kinds of field exercises involving air, sea and land forces. Over 19,000 South Korea troops will participate in the drill along with an undeclared number of US troops.
Though the US has not confirmed, the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, (North Korea), claimed on Monday that the exercise would involve all the strategic assets the US has deployed in the region, such as war ships, submarines and long range bombers.
The US has had a large military present in the region for decades. In the last few years it has increased the deployment of aircraft carriers, bombers and submarines in the region, and increased the number of military exercises also involving South Korea and Japan, in an attempt to develop a regional military alliance in order to sustain its growing interventions, targeted mostly at China and DPRK.
Both China and DPRK have accused the US of attempting to create an Asian version of NATO in the region. According to news reports on Tuesday, the Biden administration has now officially approved a plan of military preparedness in case of a coordinated nuclear attack by Russia, China and North Korea.
Increased deployment, rising US interventions in the region and increased military exercises have caused alarm. On Monday, activists gathered in South Korea to protest the military drills demanding the end of such acts, as they increase the threat of nuclear confrontation and war crises in the region.
US pursues its own interests
In the press release by its Foreign Ministry on Sunday, the DPRK blamed the US for indulging in war mongering “to pursue its own unilateral and absolute security at the expense of sacrificing the security interests of other countries.” It claimed that the sheer number and scale of military exercises the US has been conducting in the region and across the world are a major cause of “intensifying military confrontations” which cause “persistent instability on a global scale.”
North Korea has repeatedly warned against such military exercises in the region, labeling them as provocative and a threat to its security. Sunday’s press release dismissed the claims made by the US that the exercises are “routine and defensive” in nature, calling it a ploy to avoid global scrutiny. It claimed that the exercises, which are bigger than those in previous years, involve drills such as “occupying Pyongyang,” the North Korean capital.
Terming it a “confrontational recklessness” of South Korea and the US and “the most aggressive and provocative war of aggression exercise in the world,” North Korea claimed that it will “further intensify the military confrontation and contradictions in the region.”
The country also claimed that the exercise is not limited to South Korea and the US, but involves several NATO countries as well which makes this year’s Ulchi exercise “the largest military exercise in the Asia-Pacific region.”
The DPRK’s Foreign Ministry underlined that “as the collective military provocations of the US and its followers become more severe, the deterrent power of justice to neutralise the threat and ensure peace and stability in the region and the world will also be strengthened” by maintaining “the balance of power” through “stockpiling the best deterrence that can guarantee national sovereignty and safety interests in every way possible.”
The Korean diaspora and anti-imperialist group Nodutdol organized protests this past weekend in cities across the United States including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City to demand an end to US nuclear war games and provocations in Korea, as well as an end to the US military occupation of the peninsula.
Through the last week and a half of August, the US is simulating its nuclear war plans in Korean waters, air, and land.
In response, hundreds across LA, SF, and NYC rallied in the US this weekend to demand an end to US nuclear war games and provocations in Korea. pic.twitter.com/MprfIycTG1
— Nodutdol | 노둣돌 (@nodutdol) August 20, 2024