North Korea’s state media on Wednesday mentioned the South Korean fighter jets’ accidental bombing of a civilian village last week in lambasting the ongoing annual South Korea-US springtime military exercise.
"The enemies should not give a sigh of relief, but they should take seriously an ominous sign of the dangerous US-S. Korea joint military drills and immediately stop a nuclear war simulation, the root cause for the worsening security situation on the Korean Peninsula," the North's Korean Central News Agency said, referring to last week’s incident.
South Korea’s Air Force said that two South Korean KF-16 fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs on a border village in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, during live-fire drills on March 6 due to pilot error. The bombing left 31 people injured, including 19 civilians, on top of damages to several residential buildings.
"We don't need to explain how the situation would have unfolded if the bombs had dropped further north and crossed our border," the KCNA said. "It is not at all an unreasonable imagination ... that an accidental spark could engulf the Korean peninsula and the world in a new armed conflict in response to the malicious large joint military drills by the US and South Korea."
The commentary comes as South Korea and the US kicked off the annual Freedom Shield exercise on Monday for an 11-day run. Live-fire exercises, however, will be suspended until further notice due to the bombing accident, South Korea’s military said.
North Korea has long labeled the joint military exercises by the allies as a rehearsal for war against their regime.
An expert said that the latest commentary is part of Pyongyang’s message toward Washington as North Korean policy under the second Donald Trump administration has been taking shape.
“The commentary targets the first South Korea-US military drill following the launch of the second Trump administration and the White House’s condemnation of the North’s test-firing of close-range ballistic missiles on Monday,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing Tuesday that Washington condemns the North’s “unlawful and destabilizing actions.”
Leavitt added that the US-South Korea alliance remains “ironclad” and the Trump administration remains in close contact with Seoul.
North Korea test-fired multiple close-range ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Monday, marking the reclusive regime’s first ballistic missile launch since the start of the second Trump administration in January.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
