hankyoreh

By Park Byong-su, staff reporter

North Korea threatened on Mar. 20 to respond with military action to any future deployments by US Air Force B-52 strategic bombers.

A foreign ministry spokesperson was reported by the Korean Central News Agency as saying, “To bring strategic nuclear strike methods onto the Choson [Korean] Peninsula at a time when it is racing to the brink of war in an intolerable provocation and a test of our determination toward extreme hawkishness.”

“If in the future strategic bombers make any more sorties on the Choson Peninsula, the hostile forces will not be spared a powerful military response,” the spokesperson was also quoted as saying.

The spokesperson also made reference to a recent visit to South Korea by US deputy secretary of defense Ashton Carter, saying that Carter “boasted on March 19 that they would be using the strategic B-52 bomb in the US-South Choson combined military exercises and continuing such flights in the future, all in their conspiracy to present a ‘joint response’ to [the North Korean] threat and show off the US’s determination to defend South Choson.”

B-52s, which are the main bombers for the US Air Force, took off from Guam on March 8 and 19 for bombing exercises on the Korean Peninsula before returning to base. The aircraft has long-range capabilities and is capable of carrying bombs - including nuclear weapons - weighing up to 27 tons for distances of over 6,400 km.

Carter met with South Korean Minister of National Defense Kim Kwan-jin on Mar. 18 before announcing the B-52’s inclusion in the exercises, which was an unusual move.

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