DPRK slams ROK-US joint drills for negative impact on region

This handout photo taken on September 30, 2022 and provided by the ROK Defence Ministry in Seoul shows warships including the US Navy's nuclear-powered USS Annapolis submarine (right), the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier (center), ROK's Munmu the Great destroyer (right) and Japan's Asahi-class destroyer (left) during a trilateral anti-submarine exercise in the international waters off the Korean Peninsula. (HANDOUT / ROK DEFENCE MINISTRY / AFP)

SEOUL / TOKYO – The Defense Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Saturday voiced grave concern over the escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

As a new round of Republic of Korea-US joint maritime drills is underway near the peninsula, involving the redeployed nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and ROK warships, a spokesperson for the DPRK Defense Ministry called it "an event of considerably huge negative splash to the regional situation," as quoted by the KCNA.

ROK and the United States on Sept 26 launched their joint maritime drills near the Korean Peninsula, involving the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier along with over 20 warships from the two sides

The spokesperson denounced the drills as "military bluffing," saying the DPRK armed forces are taking a serious approach in the face of "the extremely worrisome development of the present situation."

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ROK and the United States on Sept 26 launched their joint maritime drills near the Korean Peninsula, involving the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier along with over 20 warships from the two sides.

After the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group was redeployed to the peninsula on Wednesday to hold an exercise on Thursday with ROK and Japanese navies, the United States and ROK began another joint naval exercise east of the peninsula on Friday. 

Early on Sunday, the DPRK  fired two ballistic missiles, authorities in neighboring countries said, the seventh such launch by Pyongyang in recent days.

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Both missiles reached an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and covered a range of 350 km, Japan's state minister of defense, Toshiro Ino, told reporters. The first was fired at around 1:47 am local time (1647 GMT) and the second one some six minutes later.