US and South Korea conduct air maneuvers and Pyongyang threatens them

South Korea announced on Thursday that it had conducted a joint air exercise with the United States involving strategic bombers and stealth fighters, prompting a fierce threat from the North Korean government.

The planes flew over the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, according to South Korea’s defense ministry.

The show of military might came a day after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart warned of an increase in such maneuvers and enhanced security cooperation in the face of what they called a growing threat from missiles and weapons.

“The joint exercises demonstrate the readiness and ability of the United States to provide a reliable and comprehensive deterrence of nuclear and missile threats from North Korea,” the Defense Ministry said.

#North Korea promised to respond tit for tat to any security threat from #Washington and #Seoul, including using its “most overwhelming nuclear force”. https://t.co/Fp130uqEKP

— Radio TNT (@tntradiolive) February 2, 2023

The exercise involved a B-1B strategic bomber and US Air Force F-22 and F-35B stealth fighters, as well as South Korean F-35As, the ministry said.

A spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry responded that the exercise would “provoke an all-out confrontation” with the United States with Pyongyang, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.

He warned that the actions of Seoul and Washington crossed “an extreme red line.”

Seoul is keen to reassure its people of the US’s commitment to protecting it, after a year in which North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and conducted weapons tests nearly every month.

Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong Sub agreed to “expand and intensify the level and scope” of joint military exercises in light of “continued provocations” from Pyongyang, including a recent drone raid.