In response to North Korea’s calls for U.S.-South Korean military exercises, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Thursday (March 18) that U.S. forces are ready to go to war against North Korea and are “ready to fight tonight.
On March 16, Kim Yo-Jong, Kim Jong Un’s sister and vice minister of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, issued a statement threatening the United States and South Korea on the occasion of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visits to Japan and South Korea.
In response to the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises, Kim said North Korea will not hesitate to tear up the inter-Korean military agreement if South Korea dares to intensify its military provocations. She also warned the Biden administration that if the U.S. wants to “sleep soundly” in the next four years, it better not start looking for trouble from the beginning.
The North Korean newspaper “Labor News” published a statement by Kim Woong-jung on the 16th, saying it was a warning to the new U.S. administration “spreading smoke across the ocean” in response to the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
On Thursday, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement that North Korea has received repeated emails and phone calls from the U.S. since mid-February, but that it refuses any talks unless Washington changes its policy.
The U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which were suspended last February because of the Epidemic, resume today, spring, on the 8th and end on the 18th of this month, and this Time, like last year, they are being conducted in a computer simulation.
The trip to Blinken and Austin demonstrated the toughness of the U.S. top brass toward the Chinese Communist Party and North Korea. On Thursday, Blinken said the U.S. was considering both pressure and diplomacy as options in dealing with North Korea. During the visit, he also spoke of the Chinese Communist Party’s clear interest in the denuclearization of North Korea, which he hopes Beijing will promote.
During their talks, Austin reiterated the U.S. commitment to the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and to continuing to provide greater deterrence to South Korea, including the Nuclear Umbrella.
Austin said, “Our forces remain ‘combat-ready tonight’ (and) we will continue to work toward an eventual transition to a future Joint Forces Command under South Korean command.” He continued, “It will take more time to meet all the conditions of the transition, but I believe the process will solidify our alliance.”
Fox reports that according to expert analysis, North Korea may further intensify hostility through missile tests to increase leverage in negotiations against the Biden Administration. North Korea’s economy has been deeply affected by the border closures caused by the epidemic, and its already moribund economy was hit hard again by a series of natural disasters last summer.
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