North Korea Warns of Nuclear War Anytime

Choe Ju Hyon, an international security analyst, has criticized the military drills, warning that they could trigger an explosion on the peninsula and turn it into a huge powder magazine that could detonate at any moment. North Korea has referred to the exercises as ‘reckless military confrontational hysteria’ and vowed to respond with offensive action, particularly towards the US aircraft carrier's participation, which they claim is intended to stoke confrontation. The US and South Korea have been conducting annual springtime exercises, including air and sea drills involving a US aircraft carrier, B-1B and B-52 bombers, and large-scale amphibious landing drills for the first time in five years. North Korea has reacted angrily, viewing the exercises as a rehearsal for invasion.

In recent times, North Korea has been increasing its military activity, unveiling new, smaller nuclear warheads, testing a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, and firing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking anywhere in the US. Despite being accused of human rights abuses, North Korea has rejected international criticism, viewing it as a US-led plot to overthrow its regime. In a separate KCNA dispatch, North Korea's permanent representative to the diplomatic mission in Geneva, Han Tae Song, strongly condemned the annual resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on North Korea's rights situation, describing it as an intolerable act of political provocation and hostility and the most heavily politicised fraudulent document.