Tag: north korea

Choe accused Guterres of overlooking the U.S. and its allies taking the North’s ICBM test to the U.N. Security Council, saying that “This clearly proves that he is a puppet of the U.S.”…reports Asian Lite News

North Korea’s Foreign Minister called U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “a puppet of the United States” as she slammed the U.N. chief for joining U.S.-led condemnation of the North’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile test.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier issued a statement strongly condemning North Korea’s ICBM launch on Friday and reiterating his call on the North to “to immediately desist from taking any further provocative actions.” Guterres’s statement came after the United States and other countries issued similar criticism of the North’s ICBM test that showed an potential to strike anywhere in the continental U.S.

“I often take the U.N. secretary-general for a member of the U.S. White House or its State Department,” North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement carried by state media. “I express my strong regret over the fact that the U.N. secretary-general has taken a very deplorable attitude, oblivious of the purpose and principles of the U.N. Charter and its proper mission which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and equity in all matters.”

Choe accused Guterres of overlooking the U.S. and its allies taking the North’s ICBM test to the U.N. Security Council, saying that “This clearly proves that he is a puppet of the U.S.”

The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday morning on North Korea’s ICBM launch at Japan’s request. But it’s unclear if it can impose new economic sanctions on North Korea because China and Russia, two of the council’s veto-wielding members, have opposed the previous U.S. and its allies’ moves to toughen sanctions on the North over its banned tests of ballistic missiles earlier this year.

On Sunday, top diplomats from the world’s major industrialized democracies issued a joint statement calling for strong steps by the U.N. Security Council in reaction to the North Korean missile launch. “(North Korea’s) actions demand a united and robust response by the international community, including the need for further significant measures to be taken by the U.N. Security Council,” said the statement by foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Friday’s ICBM launch was the latest in North Korea’s ongoing torrid run of missile tests that experts say are meant to boost its nuclear capability and increase its leverage in future diplomacy.

North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un observed Friday’s launch of its Hwasong-17 missile and called it another “reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon to contain U.S. military threats. Some experts say the Hwasong-17 is still under development but it’s the North’s longest-range missile and is designed to carry several nuclear warheads to overcome U.S. missile defense systems.

North Korea has argued its testing activities are a warning to the United States and South Korea over their series of military drills that the North believes were an invasion rehearsal. Washington and Seoul have maintained their exercises are defensive in nature.

In her statement Monday, Choe again defended her country’s missile tests, calling them “legitimate and just exercise of the right to self-defense” against “provocative nuclear war rehearsals” by the United States and its allies. She said it’s “most amazing and deplorable to me” as Guterres still blamed North Korea for a recent flare-up in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, not the United States.

A day before her country’s ICBM test, Choe threatened to threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to steps by the U.S. to bolster its security commitment to South Korea and Japan.

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Such exercises have long provoked strong reactions from North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion…reports Asian Lite News

North Korea said Monday it would respond to joint exercises by the United States and South Korea with “sustained, resolute and overwhelming” military measures, the states news agency KCNA reported.

The warning came amid a spate of missile tests by North Korea in recent weeks, including four ballistic missiles fired on Saturday, days after the United States and South Korea concluded their biggest-ever air force drills.

A statement from the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said it “will continue to correspond with all the anti-DPRK war drills of the enemy with the sustained, resolute and overwhelming practical military measures,” using an acronym for North Korea’s official name, KCNA reported Monday morning.

The statement also said the North’s recent ballistic missile tests were a “clear answer” to Washington and Seoul over their joint exercises last week, calling the tests “corresponding military operations”.

“The more persistently the enemies’ provocative military moves continue, the more thoroughly and mercilessly the KPA will counter them,” the statement said.

Hundreds of US and South Korea warplanes — including powerful B-1B heavy bombers — participated in the Vigilant Storm exercises last week, in the first time B-1Bs have flown to the Korean peninsula since December 2017.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff had said the move demonstrated the “capability and readiness to firmly respond to any provocations from North Korea”.

Such exercises have long provoked strong reactions from North Korea, which sees them as rehearsals for an invasion.

The recent flurry of North Korean launches has included an intercontinental ballistic missile and one that landed near the South’s territorial waters. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has called the barrage “effectively a territorial invasion”.

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North Korea has ramped up its weapons demonstrations to a record place this year, launching more than 40 ballistic missiles, including developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles and an intermediate-range missile fired over Japan…reports Asian Lite News

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticized the United States for expanding joint military exercises with South Korea that it claims are practice for a potential invasion, and it warned Tuesday of “more powerful follow-up measures” in response.

The statement from the ministry came as the US and South Korea conduct aerial drills involving more than 200 warplanes, including their advanced F-35 fighter jets, as they step up their defense posture in the face of North Korea’s increased weapons testing and growing nuclear threat.

North Korea has ramped up its weapons demonstrations to a record place this year, launching more than 40 ballistic missiles, including developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles and an intermediate-range missile fired over Japan. The North has punctuated those tests with an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes preemptive nuclear attacks in loosely defined crisis situations.

The US and South Korea have resumed large-scale military drills this year after downsizing or suspending them in past years as part of efforts to create diplomatic space with Pyongyang and because of the pandemic.

The United States and South Korea’s “Vigilant Storm” air force drills, which are to continue through Friday, came after South Korea completed its annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises that officials say also involved an unspecified number of American troops.

North Korea’s latest statement came just days after the country fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, extending a barrage of launches since late September. Some of those launches have been described by the North as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and US targets.

North Korea has said its testing activities are meant as a warning amid the joint military drills. But some experts say Pyongyang has also used the drills as a chance to test new weapons systems, boost its nuclear capability and increase its leverage in future dealings with Washington and Seoul.

In comments attributed to an unidentified spokesperson, the North Korean Foreign Ministry statement said the military drills exposed the United States as the “chief culprit in destroying peace and security.” It said the North was ready to take “all necessary measures” to defend against outside military threats.

“If the US continuously persists in the grave military provocations, the DPRK will take into account more powerful follow-up measures,” the spokesperson said, using North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The statement did not specify what those measures could be.

South Korean officials have said North Korea could up the ante in coming weeks by detonating its first nuclear test device since September 2017, which could possibly take the country a step closer to its goals of building a full-fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening regional US allies and the American mainland.

In recent weeks, North Korea has also fired hundreds of shells in inter-Korean maritime buffer zones that the two Koreas established in 2018 to reduce frontline military tensions. North Korea has said that firing was in reaction to South Korean live-fire exercises at land border areas. The rival Koreas exchanged warning shots Oct. 24 along their disputed western sea boundary, a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles, as they accused each other of violating the boundary.

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Pentagon spokesman said that the deployment is meant to “send a message that the United States stands closely with its allies and partners to deter potential provocation.”…reports Asian Lite News

Amid the looming threat of a new North Korean nuclear test and tensions over China’s potential invasion of Taiwan, the United States Air Force has deployed its B-1B bombers in Guam this week, according to media report.

It is the long-range aircraft’s second deployment to the island this year.

The US military confirmed their temporary deployment to the U.S. Pacific territory as part of a “bomber task force” mission on Thursday, a day after aircraft-spotting websites reported their flight from home bases in the United States, Reuters reported.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said that the deployment is meant to “send a message that the United States stands closely with its allies and partners to deter potential provocation.”

He said that the B-1B bombers’ presence is also aimed at demonstrating that the United States has the capability to conduct global operations at any time, it was reported.

North Korea’s military on Wednesday said that it fired artillery shots overnight into maritime buffer zones near the inter-Korean border as a “serious warning” over Seoul’s ongoing military drills.

In a statement, a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said the North’s military launched a “threatening and warning” fire as its “powerful military countermeasure” against South Korea’s military exercises, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The spokesperson also called on the South to immediately stop “reckless and inciting provocations” that have raised military tensions on the peninsula, according to the carried by Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

The shots came hours after the North launched more than 250 artillery shells into waters off its east and west coast.

The KPA official said the move came in response to a series of “military provocative acts by enemies”, citing the Hoguk military drills under way in the South.

South Korea kicked off its annual Hoguk field training on Monday to hone defence capabilities to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

The drills are to run until October 28.

Last week, North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shots into the maritime buffer zones in the East and Yellow seas that were set under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement on reducing military tensions.

South Korea called the North’s provocations a clear violation of the 2018 inter-Korean military accord.

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