North Korea blasts ROK-US joint air drill

An F-22 jet, the U.S. radar evading stealth fighter, lands at an air force base in Gwangju, May 16, 2018. Yonhap file

By Jung Da-min

North Korea slammed South Korea for holding a joint air drill with the U.S., Thursday, two days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the April 27 summit between the leaders of the two Koreas.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country (CPRC) issued a strongly-worded statement blasting the annual air drill, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

On April 22, the Republic of Korea Air Force and the U.S. Air Force jointly kicked off a two-week long air force drill, saying it would replace a larger-scale springtime exercise called Max Thunder that has been conducted since 2009.

The CPRC, however, strongly condemned the joint drill, calling it “an outright challenge to the historic April Panmunjeom Declaration and the September Pyongyang Joint Declaration,” which violates the military agreement between the two Koreas on easing of military tension.

“The acts of perfidy on the part of the South Korean authorities have greatly disappointed us, as they … have gone against the trend toward the reconciliation on the peninsula which the two Koreas nurtured through their joint efforts for the past one year,” read the CPRC statement.

“While staging the large-scale combined aerial drill, the South Korean authorities claim that Max Thunder was thrown into history and they reduced the scope of the drill by taking into consideration the situation on the Korean Peninsula. They are seriously mistaken if they think they can give relief to us.”

North Korea has remained sensitive about the joint air drill.

Last year, North Korea cancelled a high-level inter-Korean meeting scheduled on May 16, citing the Max Thunder exercise that began May 11.

Last year's two-week exercise involved about 100 warplanes, including eight F-22 radar-evading fighters as well as an unspecified number of F-15K and F-16 jets.

This year, the ROK Air Force did not specify the warplanes involved but Australia's E-7A, South Korea's F-15K and KF-16, and the U.S.' F-16 jets have been identified as participating, according to military sources.

The North's CPRC statement also slammed another ROK-U.S. joint drill Dong Maeng exercise that has replaced the larger-scale Key Resolve exercise in March.

“They can never conceal the aggressive, offensive and confrontational nature of their hostile acts no matter how hard they may try to give the impression of a 'reduction in scope' by replacing the codename,” CPRC said.