North Korea has denounced last month’s trilateral disaster response drills involving South Korea, the United States, and Japan, calling them “military actions based on the presumption of war” against the North.
In Tuesday’s article titled “Threats to Peace Are Growing by the Day,” the ruling party’s newspaper Rodong Sinmun claimed the United States is “intensely conducting a wide range of exercises with South Korea to master methods of invasion warfare.”
The report cited multiple joint military activities, including the Combined Joint Aerial Resupply Exercise conducted by South Korea and the U.S. from May 9 to 16, which simulated aerial resupply operations during wartime. It also mentioned the arrival of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Stratton at the port of Busan on May 29 for a trilateral maritime disaster response drill.
Rodong Sinmun asserted that these supply and casualty evacuation exercises, designed for a potential Korean Peninsula crisis, demonstrate that the U.S. “has not abandoned its hostile intent” and is now moving toward execution.
The article also criticized the recent transfer of nine F-16 fighter jets from Gunsan to Osan Air Base, part of an effort to create a so-called “super fighter squadron” of 31 F-16s at the site.
“Self-defense is the root of national survival and the guarantee of progress,” the newspaper wrote, adding that “true peace can only be ensured by confronting the enemies of peace head-on.”