The joint US and South Korean military exercises have gone ahead despite strong threats from North Korea as well as explicit disagreement from China.
The war games which began Sunday were intended as a show of force against North Korea, which is being blamed for the sinking of a South Korean warship incident that occured in March.
The drills include the aircraft carrier USS George Washington as well as 20 ships, 200 aircraft and 8,000 military personnel.
According to Lieutenant General Jeffrey Remington, commander of the US 7th Air Force, four F-22 Raptor stealth fighters are flying missions in and around Korea for the first time to show the commitment from Washington to deter and defeat any provocative acts from North Korea.
The military exercises, code-named “Invincible Spirit” will last for four days. The exercise on the second day consisted of simulated attacks on enemy submarines and live-fire drills by a squadron of fighter jets off the east coast, said Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for the country’s Joint Chief of Staff according to Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency.
North Korea’s ultra powerful National Defence Commission said Saturday that it’s army “will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the US and the South Korean puppet forces”.
The NDC said “all these war manoeuvres are nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic Republic of Korea by force of arms to all intents and purposes.”
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