North Korea warned on Wednesday that “dangerous and unusual military moves” by South Korea and the US would trigger a new cold war on the Korean Peninsula.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “South Korea was introducing “F-35A” stealth fighters – “cutting-edge lethal equipment” from the US, after the just-ended joint military exercises”.
The act “is a grave provocation that has openly denied the joint declarations and the military agreement” between the two sides on the Korean Peninsula, he said.
The spokesperson also said that the hostile military moves, including the US-South Korea joint military exercises and the build-up of armed forces in South Korea, are reducing the dynamics of dialogue for building lasting and durable peace on the Korean Peninsula, and compel North Korea to “weigh a realistic way of turning our attention more to strengthening the physical deterrence”.
Last week, North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into the East Sea.
It was the sixth round of launches in recent weeks in protest at ongoing South-Korean-US joint military drills. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had described the tests as a “solemn warning” to the South.
Denuclearisation talks between North Korea and the US have been stalled despite a commitment made to revive them at a meeting on June 30 between North Korean top leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.