North Korea warns US against intercepting its missile tests

Asia-Pacific, News March 8, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

North Korea warned that any attempt from the U.S. to intercept and shoot down its missile tests would be considered a declaration of war. The tension in the region is increasing immensely after the U.S. and South Korean forces announced their ten-day-long joint military exercises last week.

The statement came from Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un. Kim Yo Jong cited a report published by South Korean media that highlights the U.S.’s plan to intercept and shoot down Pyongyang’s Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) if any other launch takes place toward the Pacific Ocean.

North Korea carried out a record number of missile tests last year, including one of its largest nuclear-capable ICBM tests since 2017, escalating regional instability on multiple occasions. The trend of increased missile tests seems to be continuing in the present year as well.

North Korea usually fires its ballistic missiles at a steep angle to avoid misfires in any of its neighboring countries. Several of North Korea’s tested missiles fell into the Sea of Japan, while some flew over Japan and South Korea. The U.S. or its allies have never shot down any of North Korea’s ballistic missiles and this is the first time North Korea has brought up the question of the U.S. or its allies intercepting its missiles.

“The Pacific Ocean does not belong to the dominium of the U.S. or Japan,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement released by North Korea’s state-owned media outlet KCNA. “It is very interesting to see how the U.S., whose forces frequently conduct the test launches of strategic weapons in the Pacific every year as if the ocean were its yard, will respond if a third country attempts to intercept them under the reason for counteraction,” Kim Yo Jong said.

*^{Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, delivers a speech in Pyongyang, North Korea, in August 2022. (Image Credit: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service)}*

“We keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the South Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick, and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment,” Kim further added to her statement.

North Korea’s fiery rhetoric comes at a time when the U.S. and South Korean forces are preparing to start one of their largest joint military exercises in the region. The U.S. deployed a B-52 bomber for a joint drill with South Korean fighter jets.

In a separate statement released by the North Korean foreign ministry, North Korea asked United Nations to intervene and put an immediate halt to the U.S. and South Korea’s joint military drills near its coasts as it fears the exercises threaten the regional peace and stability.

Pyongyang termed U.S.-South Korea military drills as a practice for the invasion of North Korea. Soon after the two military allies announced their large-scale joint-military exercise in the region, North Korea reacted by stating that such joint exercises are proof that the United States and its allies are hostile and determined to change the regime in the North.

^{US Air Force B-1B bombers and F-16 fighter jets along with South Korean Air Force F-35A fighter jets take part in a joint air drill on February 19, 2023. (Image Credit: South Korean Defense Ministry/via Reuters)}

The U.S. has had around 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea since the end Korean War in 1953, which ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two countries technically at war.