North Korean authorities condemned "aggression moves" made by Washington and Seoul, vowing on Saturday to take revenge as the nation marked the 72nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War during a time of rising tension on the Korean peninsula.
The situation comes amid concerns that North Korea could be preparing itself to conduct its first nuclear test in five years. In May, South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl and United States President Joe Biden agreed to deploy more U.S. weapons if it was necessary to deter the North.
North Korea Scorns the U.S.
State news agency KCNA said on Saturday that several workers' organizations had held meetings to "vow revenge on the U.S. imperialists." They reportedly blamed the United States for starting the Korean War that occurred from 1950 to 1953.
That particular war ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, which means that the U.S.-led United Nations forces are still technically at war with North Korea. Reports of the Korean state news agency said that Pyongyang denounced Washington over what it called "aggression moves" that were carried out with South Korea and Japan, as per CNN.
The reports claimed that the United States' push to deploy "strategic assets" on the South was aimed at provoking another war. These types of assets commonly include aircraft carriers, long-range bomber aircraft, or missile submarines.
The KCNA said that "such insolent behavior of the U.S. fans the anger and revenge of the Korean people." Yool, marking the anniversary of the war in Seoul, pledged to do his utmost to protect the freedom and peace within the region.
According to Reuters, Yool said in a Facebook post, "we will maintain strong security posture based on South Korea-U.S. alliance and a strong military backed by science and technology."
In May, U.S. President Biden made a trip to Asia for international diplomatic talks, but in the days prior, Kim Jong-Un's regime fired three ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan. The North's administration conducted another series of missile tests as the American leader concluded his trip to the region.
At the time, the South Korean government said that the North's sustained provocations would only result in stronger and faster South Korea-U.S. combined deterrence. Authorities argued that they would only deepen North Korea's international isolation, Fox News reported.
Rising Tensions in the Korean Peninsula
The situation comes as the North has slowly been escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula since Biden took office. This was done by continuous testing of the region's ballistic missile programs, including its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
Many experts in the region believe that Biden's policies are failing and need to be changed, otherwise, there is a risk of another foreign policy issue. The North has conducted more than a dozen missile tests this year alone.
A senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Ankit Panda, said that North Korea is not at the top of the agenda for the Biden administration. He noted that there was little interest in fundamentally revisiting the outcomes of last year's policy review based on new developments since then.
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