North Korea’s foreign ministry denounced a U.S. planned sale of Apache helicopters to South Korea, vowing to take additional steps to bolster its defence. The Pentagon had said on Monday that the U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of Apache attack helicopters and related logistics and support systems to South Korea for an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.
An unnamed senior official in charge of foreign news at North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a press statement on Thursday criticising the sale of the potent platform as a move to aggravate tensions, alongside the ongoing annual military drills being held by the allies.
North Korea accused Washington of escalating military confrontation, “disturbing the military balance and thus increasing the danger of a new conflict” in the region by supplying lethal weapons to its allies and friends.
Pyongyang’s “strategic deterrence will be further strengthened to protect the national security and interests and the regional peace,” the statement said, pledging to steadily conduct military activities to boost its defence.
This comes just days after South Korea and the United States kicked off their annual summertime military exercises, through the wargames the militaries of the two nations seek to boost their joint readiness to fend off North Korea’s weapons and cyber threats. The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, set to end on August 29, come as North Korea races to advance its nuclear and missile programmes and tries to launch reconnaissance satellites.
About 19,000 South Korean troops will take part, similar to last year, with 48 rounds of combined field training, including field manoeuvre, live fire and amphibious exercises to be held. Pyongyang has long denounced the allies for stoking tensions with military drills, calling them rehearsals for a nuclear war. Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive and a response to the North’s threats.
Last month North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong, a powerful entity in North Korea has accused South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol of creating tensions on the Korean peninsula. Kim Yo Jong, was quoted by North Korean agencies as saying that Yool was generating tensions to divert attention from domestic issues plaguing his country.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
