America, South Korea Set To Retaliate North Korea’s Nuclear Strike Over Japan?

Are America and South Korea set to retaliate North Koreas’ nuclear strike over Japan? This is the question on many minds as the two countries, strong allies in the international community begin joint precision-strike bombing drills.

The America and South Korea joint drills is happening hours after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan.

No such action had taken place between the two countries in about five years, and it has triggered Japanese government warning to citizens to evacuate inside or underground.

A South Korea’s military source confirmed the joint military drills, according to a mailonline report..

The North Korea action is seen as a hugely provocative move, especially against a long-standing face-off between it and the other Korea, a strong ally of the West.

The America-South Korea joint drill involved four South Korean Air Force F-15Ks and four US Air Force F-16 fighters, with the South Korea’s F-15K firing two joint direct attack munition (JDAM) bombs against a virtual target at the Jikdo shooting field in the West Sea.

This information came from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, who referred to the Yellow Sea.

The drills aimed to demonstrate the allies’ ‘capabilities to conduct a precision strike at the origin of provocations,’ they added.

America, South Korea Set To Retaliate North Korea’s Nuclear Strike Over Japan?

North Korea’s missile was launched around 7.20am from its Mupyong-ri test site, near the border with China, and passed over Japan’s Tohoku region around five minutes later. Warning sirens sounded and civilians were told to take cover.

Report said the rocket passed over the mainland and continued 1,800 miles off Japan’s eastern coast before splashing down in the Pacific around 7.45am – making it the longest-ranged North Korea missile test ever. No damage was caused and nobody was hurt.

The Eagle reports that last week, the US, South Korea and Japanese had conducted naval drills.

None-the-less, the test is a clear provocation likely in response to joint US, South Korean and Japanese naval drills last week and that North Korean despot Kim Jong Un regards as a rehearsal for an invasion.

It also comes off the back of a quick-fire series of North Korean missile tests – now five in 10 days – and comes amid US warnings the country is gearing up for another nuclear test as Pyongyang ramps up tests to build a fully fledged nuclear arsenal.

America, South Korea Set To Retaliate North Korea’s Nuclear Strike Over Japan?

The missiles viably threatens US allies and the American homeland with the goal of wresting outside concessions, some experts say. The nuclear-capable weapon could reach the US territory of Guam and possibly beyond.

Experts believe the north perceives this an indication of a waiting invasion, and have to do something.

According to the report, the last time Pyongyang fired a missile over Japan was in 2017, at the height of a period of ‘fire and fury’ when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traded insults with US president Donald Trump.

The White House reportedly announced that the US national security advisor spoke separately with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts.

‘In both calls, the National Security Advisors consulted on appropriate and robust joint and international responses and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reinforced the United States’ ironclad commitments to the defense of Japan and the ROK (South Korea),’ national security spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement issued on Monday evening, local time.

The latest launch – which the United States branded ‘reckless and dangerous’ – comes in a record year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by North Korea, which recently revised its laws to declare itself an ‘irreversible’ nuclear power.

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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called the launch a ‘provocation’ that violated UN regulations and vowed a ‘stern response’ in a statement issued by his office.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described Pyongyang’s latest test as ‘an act of violence’, while European Union head Charles Michel called it ‘an unjustified aggression’. Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said the missile could have been a Hwasong-12.