On both sides of the North-South line between the two Koreas, they are playing war games that are close to the real thing but don’t kill their enemies.
First, there were more than 240 warplanes from the U.S. and South Korea, led by F-35s that could be used by both countries’ air forces. Then, North Korea made threats of retaliation, and then it fired missiles and cannons at them over and over again.
Thursday, North Korean gunners kept up the pace by firing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could, in theory, carry a nuclear warhead to the U.S.
The missile did not fly over Japan as was first feared, but it did show the North’s plan to scare the U.S. and its two northeast Asian allies, Japan and South Korea. People in Japan’s northern prefectures were told to seek shelter. North Korea also fired two more short-range missiles on Wednesday, in addition to the ones it had already fired.
With each shot, it seemed like war was getting closer, especially after two North Korean shots made waves south of what is called the Northern Limit Line, below which North Korean ships are not allowed.
North Korea doesn’t recognize the dotted lines that the US and South Korea put on maps after the Korean War ended. On Wednesday, they proved it by firing a missile near a small South Korean island called Ulleungdo, which is 75 miles from the east coast.
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The missile was powerful enough to set off air raid sirens on the island. This made the South test-fire some of its own missiles, which made President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea say that the North would pay “a clear price for the provocations.
But how far would North Korea go to get what it wants? And would Kim Jong Un then give the North’s seventh nuclear test, which would be his first since September 2017, the go-ahead?
“I honestly don’t know,” said Joseph DeTrani, a veteran American negotiator who had gone head-to-head with the North Koreans before they stopped talking more than a decade ago. DeTrani insisted, though, that the U.S. and South Korea should stick to their guns and insist on “complete denuclearization,” even though Kim has made it clear how much he loves his nukes and missiles.
Sir @mikepompeo when you were secretary of state and #Trump our President our fierce enemy Kim Jong Un Lowered his missiles and invited President 45th to his home I miss that administration 😢 @dougmastriano @carrieforpa @GarrityForPA @Kathy4Truth @lourdesubieta @Laurenjmayk https://t.co/nLtyLEFdzM pic.twitter.com/uSNm8lQf3Q
— Real Hamlet Garcia (@Hamletgarcia17) November 3, 2022
Kim Jong Un has been talking about “tactical nukes” that can hit small targets like a bridge or an airfield, but North Korea does much better with regular artillery shells. About 100 of them were fired off North Korea’s east coast into a “buffer zone” that both sides had agreed would be there.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, says that the North is so good at making them that it is “secretly” selling them to Russia. This deal fits right in with Kim’s claim that he fully supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, for which he was said to be thinking about sending North Korean troops.
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The North Koreans had given plenty of warnings about what they might do if the U.S. and South Korea went ahead with the exercise this week. As warplanes from the U.S. and South Korea flew close to the demilitarized zone, the North’s foreign ministry issued a threatening warning of “stronger follow-up measures.”
For the U.S. and South Korea, however, defiance was the keyword. This was in line with President Yoon’s policy of getting tough with the North after his liberal predecessor spent five years trying to make peace with the North and failing.
U.S. and South Korean warplanes took off from different bases to support marines and soldiers on the ground and show what they might do if Kim Jong Un took another dangerous step and actually attacked the South, as he had been threatening to do. In a show of air power, American heavy-duty B52 and B1 bombers based in Guam and Japan were also expected to join the parade. An Australian KC30A tanker plane was expected to fuel the bombers while they were in the air as a sign of solidarity between allies.
“I Don’t Think That Will Escape Pyongyang’s Notice.”
The war games were the biggest show of U.S. and South Korean air power since the early years of the Korean War. They were also the best chance for North Korea to show off its growing missile skills.
Kim already tested more than 40 missiles this year, so he had his troops fire at least 25 more short- and medium-range missiles to show that he could hit American and South Korean bases easily. Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. base overseas and the headquarters for the 28,500 U.S. troops now in South Korea, would be the most obvious target.
The U.S. headquarters are at Osan Air Base, which is a few miles from Humphreys. Most of the planes were coming from the Seventh Air Force.
President Kim Jong Un: “I extend my congratulations to you on your election as President of Brazil.
I express my conviction that the relations of friendship and cooperation between our two countries will improve and strengthen in keeping with the demand of the times.” 🇰🇵❤️🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/pKnbuEkXih
— Natalie Everhart 🇰🇵 (@NatalieRevolts) November 3, 2022
The war games, first the U.S. and South Korean aerial show of force and then the North Korean response, quickly took people’s attention away from South Korea’s week-long period of mourning for the 156 people, 101 women and 55 men, who died in the Halloween crush in Seoul’s booming Itaewon district, the playground of GIs before they moved to Camp Humphreys, 40 miles south of Seoul. Most of the people who died were in their 20s, but there were also
Yoon had just sent his deepest condolences and slammed the police for not being ready for the 100,000-holiday crowd and not moving faster to help the victims when he started putting out statements and calling “emergency” meetings to figure out what to do about the North Koreans.
But would the war games between the U.S. and South Korea really do much to get Kim Jong Un to talk again, let alone give up his nukes?
The U.S. and South Korea warned that it will be the end of Kim Jong Un regime if North Korea uses nuclear weapons. The warning comes after North Korea launched an unprecedented missile barrage. @MarthaRaddatz reports. https://t.co/LRd1znjMAd pic.twitter.com/e1RLf2qecq
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) November 4, 2022
Evans Revere, a retired senior U.S. diplomat with years of experience in Korea, said that between 1,300 and 1,400 combat flights will be flown by more than 240 planes, most of which will be F-35s. “I don’t think Pyongyang won’t notice that.”
Yes, he told The Daily Beast, “this is like something we’ve done before, but MUCH bigger.” Still, he said, “by increasing the size and number of our exercises, we are putting a huge burden on the North Korean regime, which will have to respond by using a lot of fuel, flying (and breaking) planes, wasting missiles, etc.”
Revere said, “Every time we move, they have to move, and they can’t afford to.” “If we can keep going like this, North Korea will have to pay a lot more to stay on its current path. And if, after the nuclear test, we can add new overt and covert economic measures, it could hurt their system a lot.
