Overview

• The head of North Korea’s defense ministry policy office called the July 11 drills the main danger factor raising military tension on the peninsula.
• South Korea’s defense ministry confirmed the exercises took place over international waters off Jeju Island and involved at least one U.S. B-52H strategic bomber on its first deployment near the peninsula this year.
• Pyongyang accused the U.S.-South Korea-Japan alliance of evolving into a nuclear-based triangular military alliance.
• North Korea warned of grave consequences for the region and asserted its sovereign right to take countermeasures against what it described as provocative military actions.
• The July drills follow a series of increasingly sophisticated trilateral air exercises aimed at bolstering interoperability to deter North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs.