US, South Korea start massive Air Force drills
Bloomberg|
Updated: Dec 05, 2017, 12.50 AM IST
SEOUL: The US and South Korea on Monday began a five-day joint air exercise on the Korean peninsula involving 230 aircraft and 12,000 American troops, in what North Korea has dubbed the largest-ever joint aerial drill.
North Korea said ahead of the Vigilant Ace 18 drills that it would consider the “highest level hard-line counter measure in history,” according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
It referred to a similar statement in September, which Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said may include a ground-level test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea regularly cites military drills around the peninsula as justification for its nuclear and missile-testing programme.
The regime on November 29 launched an ICBM with improved technology that can deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in the US, and claimed it had completed its nuclear force.
North Korea said ahead of the Vigilant Ace 18 drills that it would consider the “highest level hard-line counter measure in history,” according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
It referred to a similar statement in September, which Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said may include a ground-level test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea regularly cites military drills around the peninsula as justification for its nuclear and missile-testing programme.
The regime on November 29 launched an ICBM with improved technology that can deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in the US, and claimed it had completed its nuclear force.
