A US Air Force B-1B bomber (top) and South Korean KF-16 fighter jets take part in a joint air drill in South Korea, March 3, 2023. (Photo: The South Korean Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo.)

The drills “have put the situation on the Korean Peninsula on an extremely dangerous level”, North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong said in a press statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

On Friday, the US and South Korea staged a joint air drill, the fourth of its kind since the beginning of the year, over the waters west of the Korean Peninsula, with the mobilization of B-1B strategic bombers and MQ-9 Reaper combat drones, according to the statement.

Earlier, they staged a “drill for operating extended deterrence means under the simulated conditions of using nuclear weapons,” Kim said.
“It is regrettable that the UN has been consistently silent on the exercises, which have a clear aggressive nature," he added.

The United States and South Korea will conduct more than 10 days of large-scale military exercises in March, including amphibious landings, officials from the two countries said on Friday.

They say the exercises are in self-defence and are necessary to counter the rising threats from North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes, which are banned by UN Security Council resolutions.