NNorth Korea has warned the US of repeated incursions into the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). A US military reconnaissance plane violated the EEZ eight times on Monday, state news agency KCNA quoted Kim Yo Jong, the sister of ruler Kim Jong Un, as saying on Monday. US forces would experience a “very critical flight” if they continued their “illegal intrusion.” Kim urged South Korea not to interfere. The matter is “one between the Korean People’s Army and the US Armed Forces.
The exclusive economic zone covers an area up to 200 nautical miles off the coast of a country and enshrines the right to exploit the marine resources therein. However, it does not confer sovereignty over the water surface or the airspace above it. North Korea had already threatened to shoot down US surveillance flights that were violating the country’s airspace over the weekend.
North Korea warns of nuclear conflict
North Korea had previously threatened to shoot down any US spy planes in its airspace. With such flights, the US Air Force risks an “accident” such as the “crashes of strategic reconnaissance aircraft,” a spokesman for the North Korean Defense Ministry told the North Korean state news agency KCNA on Monday. In the statement, the spokesman also criticized the planned stationing of a US nuclear submarine in South Korea. This threatens to bring the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the “threshold of a nuclear conflict”.
According to the spokesman, the US had “expanded its espionage activities beyond wartime levels” and made “provocative” flights for eight consecutive days this month. A reconnaissance aircraft also entered North Korean airspace “several times” over the East Sea. The East Sea is also known as the Sea of Japan.
Criticism of the stationing of US nuclear submarines
The spokesman also condemned the planned stationing of a US nuclear submarine on the Korean peninsula. It poses a serious threat to regional and global security. “The current situation clearly demonstrates that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is approaching the threshold of a nuclear conflict due to provocative US military action,” the statement said.
Washington signed an agreement with Seoul in April to strengthen South Korea’s nuclear shield. For the first time in decades, a US submarine equipped with nuclear missiles is to make a stop in South Korea. A specific date for the project was not given.
Military tensions on the Korean peninsula have recently increased. The communist leadership in Pyongyang has repeatedly threatened a military escalation in the region.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected at the NATO summit in Lithuania this week to seek greater cooperation with NATO members over North Korean threats, Yoon’s office said.
