US-S Korea military exercise leaves North Korea fuming

Seoul: Continuing to slam joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea in the region, North Korea said a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula has become a matter of when, not if.

In comments attributed to an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman, North Korea also claimed high-ranked US officials, including CIA Director Mike Pompeo, have further confirmed American intent for war with a series of 'bellicose remarks.'

Pompeo said Saturday that US intelligence agencies believe North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doesn't have a good idea about how tenuous his situation is domestically and internationally. The North's spokesman said Pompeo provoked the country by 'impudently criticizing our supreme leadership which is the heart of our people.'

'The large-scale nuclear war exercises conducted by the US in succession are creating touch-and-go situation on the Korean peninsula and series of violent war remarks coming from the US high-level politicians amid such circumstances have made an outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula an



established fact. The remaining question now is: when will the war break out,' the spokesman said.

'We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it, and should the US miscalculate our patience and light the fuse for a nuclear war, we will surely make the US dearly pay the consequences with our mighty nuclear force which we have consistently strengthened,' the spokesperson added.

The comments were carried by the official Korean Central News Agency late Wednesday, hours after the United States flew a B-1B supersonic bomber over South Korea as part of a massive combined aerial exercise involving hundreds of warplanes. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the Guam-based bomber simulated land strikes at a military field near South Korea's eastern coast during a drill with US and South Korean fighter jets.

'Through the drill, the South Korean and US air forces displayed the allies' strong intent and ability to punish North Korea when threatened by nuclear weapons and missiles,' the South Korean military said in a statement.