The US has sent an aircraft carrier, destroyers and other ships carrying 14,000 servicemen to waters near Japan for a war drill that has set North Korea’s teeth on edge.
The 10-day exercise – which will see US and Japanese troops performing war games in the waters off Okinawa – comes as the Kim regime continues to pursue its nuclear missile development program.
It comes just days after North Korean Ambassador Ja Song Nam slammed US drills in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, saying that the current situation around the Korean peninsula was ‘the worst ever’.
The drills began on Thursday and include aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan, and the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, among others.
North Korea, which has stoked regional tensions with nuclear and missile tests in recent months, has repeatedly denounced such military drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes conducts its own military manoeuvres in response.