US and Ally Stage Air Power Drills in Response to North Korea’s ICBM Test

The US and South Korean militaries demonstrated air power after the North launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The launch of the Hwasong-19 solid-fuel missile, overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was the latest in frequent missile tests by the nuclear-armed regime in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions.

Japan’s Defense Ministry tracked the ICBM, which flew northeast for 86 minutes, the longest duration yet for a North Korean missile, before splashing down in the Sea of ​​Japan. The event drew condemnation from Japan, South Korea and the United States, with the latter demanding that Pyongyang refrain from “further illegal and destabilizing actions.”

Newsweek reached out to the North Korean embassy in China with an emailed request for a response.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a press release that the drills were focused on countering nuclear and ballistic missile threats from Pyongyang. The Allies “demonstrated their combined capabilities to overwhelm the enemy,” the statement added.

The more than 110 participating aircraft conducted a series of mock combat and precision bombing exercises over the Yellow Sea, known in Korea as the West Sea, “in response to North Korea’s long-range ballistic missile launches.”

The US contributed F-35As, F-16s and Marine Corps MQ-9 Reaper drones, while South Korea deployed F-35Bs, F-15Ks and KF-16s, an internally improved version of the original Fighting Falcon.

Seoul is coordinating closely with its US ally to monitor security developments on the Korean Peninsula and pledges to “always maintain the capacity and readiness to punish provocation by North Korea’s overwhelming,” the statement concluded.

In a video shared with local media by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a Korean F-15 can detonate a GBU-12 guided bomb. Its target was intended to replicate a North Korean carrier-launched missile like the one that appeared to be used to launch ICBMs.

In a statement issued by North Korea’s international broadcaster Voice of Korea, Kim stressed the need to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces, citing the “dangerous tightening of their nuclear alliance and various adventurous military maneuvers” by rivals – an apparent reference to the US nuclear umbrella over South Korea and the allies’ frequent war games simulating conflict with the North.

Kim said the “security situation” required Pyongyang to continue advancing its “modern strategic forces” and vowed never to stop “strengthening its nuclear forces,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.

The launch came just hours after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun in Washington. At the press conference that followed, Kim described the North’s missile and nuclear programs as an “existential threat” not only to Seoul but the entire region.

Austin reaffirmed the US commitment to Seoul’s defense in line with the policy of extended deterrence and vowed that a nuclear strike from the North would end in the annihilation of the Kim regime.

Inter-Korean tensions, already at their highest in decades, became even more strained after thousands of North Korean troops were deployed to Russia. US officials have said around 8,000 are already in the border region of Kursk, where Russian forces have been fighting since August to contain a Ukrainian counter-offensive.