US, South Korea begin military drills as North Korea calls for ‘merciless revenge’
Seoul — The US and South Korea on Monday began a five-day joint air exercise on the Korean peninsula involving 230 aircraft and 12,000 American troops, the allies said in a joint statement. A day before the Vigilant Ace 18 drills, North Korea called for "merciless revenge" and said the nation would consider the "highest-level hard-line countermeasure in history", according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. It referred to a similar statement in September, which Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said may refer to a ground-level test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea regularly cites military drills around the peninsula as justification for its nuclear and missile-testing programme. Last week, the isolated regime launched a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile with improved technology that can deliver a nuclear warhead anywhere in the US, and claimed it had completed its nuclear force. The US and South Korea said the exercises were an annual event aimed...
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