North Korea Warns 'Offensive Action' over Allies' Drills

North Korea on Thursday threatened unspecified “offensive action” over the expansion of US military exercises with rival South Korea as President Joe Biden’s special representative for North Korea flew to Seoul for talks with allies over the North’s growing nuclear threat.

The North Korean comments came a day after the United States flew nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the Korean Peninsula for joint aerial exercises with South Korean warplanes in their latest show of force against the North, which portrays the allies’ drills as invasion rehearsals. Animosity heightened in recent weeks as the pace of both the US-South Korean military exercises and the North Korean weapons demonstrations increased in a cycle of tit-for-tat, The Associated Press said.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the United States and South Korea’s military exercises and the deployment of advanced US military assets have turned the Korean Peninsula into a “huge powder magazine, which can be detonated any moment.”

“The military provocations by the US-led warmongers have gone beyond the tolerance limit. This reality awaits more explicit stand and answer of (North Korea’s) defense capabilities,” KCNA said in a commentary attributed to a scholar.

“(North Korea’s) war deterrence will continue to show its responsibility for and confidence in its crucial mission through offensive action,” it said.

KCNA’s commentary came as Sung Kim, the US special representative to North Korea, arrived in Seoul for talks with South Korean and Japanese officials to coordinate their response to North Korea’s intensifying weapons development and threats of nuclear conflict.

Following meetings with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and other South Korean officials on Thursday, Kim will take part in a three-way meeting with the South Korean and Japanese nuclear envoys on Friday, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

Kim on Thursday separately met with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and chief South Korean nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, where they discussed strengthening joint defense postures and inducing further international efforts to crack down on illicit North Korean activities funding its weapons program, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.

Sung Kim and Kim Gunn during their meeting stressed the need to encourage countries to tighten their enforcement of UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea, including a requirement to repatriate North Korean laborers dispatched overseas, considering the possibility of North Korea reopening its borders as COVID-19 fears ease.

They also discussed seeking an active role from China – North Korea’s key ally and economic lifeline – in persuading Pyongyang to halt its weapons displays and return to denuclearization talks, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry. Beijing and Moscow have blocked US-led attempts to strengthen UN sanctions against the North over some of its ballistic tests, underscoring a divide in the Security Council deepened over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sung Kim and Kim Gunn are planning to participate in a three-way meeting with Japanese nuclear envoy Takehiro Funakoshi in Seoul on Friday.

North Korea in March alone fired nearly 20 missiles over seven different launch events, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that demonstrated potential range to reach the US mainland and several shorter-range weapons designed to deliver nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

The North described its tests as a response to the US-South Korean drills, as the allies conducted their biggest field exercise in years last month and separately held joint aerial and naval drills involving US long-range bombers and an aircraft carrier strike group.

Tensions are likely to prolong as North Korea is likely to use the allies’ continuing drills as a pretext to advance weapons development and intensify military training involving its nuclear-capable missiles.

South Korean officials say North Korea may up the ante by staging more provocative displays of its military might. Those may include the North’s first nuclear test since 2017 or test-firing an ICBM on a normal ballistic trajectory toward the Pacific, unlike its previous long-range tests that were conducted on high angles to avoid the territories of neighbors.

North Korea could possibly time some of its military displays to major holidays that fall this month, including the April 15 birthday of state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current ruler, Kim Jong Un, and the April 25 anniversary of its army’s founding. The North also previously said it aims to finish preparations to launch a military spy satellite into space by April, an event its rivals would almost certainly see as a test of ICBM technology banned by international sanctions.

Lt. Gen. Park Ha Sik, commander of the South Korean air force operation command, said Wednesday’s drills involving B-52 bombers were aimed at displaying the allies’ “strong resolve” and “perfect readiness to respond to any provocation by North Korea swiftly and overwhelmingly.”

The United States also sent the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier for joint naval training with South Korea last week and US-South Korea-Japan anti-submarine drills this week.

Nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea have stalled since 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of crippling US-led sanctions against the North and the North’s steps to wind down its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea has also halted all cooperation with South Korea and tensions between the rivals have risen as the North coupled its ICBM developments with an expansion of its nuclear-capable short-range arsenal designed to overwhelm South Korean missile defenses.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Thursday that Seoul would take unspecified “necessary measures” if North Korea continues to use without permission South Korean assets left behind at a now-shuttered joint factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.

The ministry cited recent photos and videos published by North Korean state media that showed what appeared to be South Korean commuter buses running in the streets of Kaesong and the capital, Pyongyang.

South Korea pulled its companies out of Kaesong in 2016 following a North Korean nuclear test, removing the last remaining major symbol of cooperation between the two rivals.

Refugees who had been approved to travel to the United States before a deadline next week suspending America's refugee resettlement program have had their travel plans canceled by the Trump administration.

Thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution and had gone through a sometimes yearslong process to start new lives in America are now stranded at various locations worldwide. That includes more than 1,600 Afghans who assisted America's war effort, as well as relatives of active-duty US military personnel.

President Donald Trump paused the refugee resettlement program this week as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration. His move had left open the possibility that refugees who had been screened to come to the US and had flights booked before the Jan. 27 deadline might be able to get in under the wire.

But in an email dated Tuesday and reviewed by The Associated Press, the US agency overseeing refugee processing and arrivals told staff and stakeholders that "refugee arrivals to the United States have been suspended until further notice."

There are a little more than 10,000 refugees from around the world who had already gone through the lengthy refugee admission process and had travel scheduled over the next few weeks, according to a document obtained by the AP. It was not immediately clear how many of those had been set to arrive by upcoming deadline.

Among those are more than 1,600 Afghans cleared to come to the US as part of the program that the Biden administration set up after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Many veterans of America's longest war have tried for years to help Afghans they worked with, in addition to their families, find refuge in the US. Many were prepared for a suspension of the resettlement program but had hoped for special consideration for the Afghans.

"The Trump administration’s early pause of refugee flights is alarming, leaving thousands of Afghan allies in fear and uncertainty," said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition supporting Afghan resettlement efforts. "We are ready to partner to fix this and urge clear communication with impacted families. Let’s honor our promises and uphold America’s values."

There is a separate path — the special immigrant visa program— specifically for Afghans who worked directly with the US government. VanDiver's group said that program, set up by Congress, did not appear to be affected at this time.

Trump's order signed Monday had given the State Department a week before it began to halt all processing and traveling. It appears the timing was moved up, though it was not immediately clear what prompted the change.

The State Department referred questions to the White House.

Agencies that help refugees settle and adjust to life in America have argued that this is the type of legal immigration that Trump and his supporters say they like and have pointed to the stringent background checks and sometimes yearslong wait that refugees endure before setting foot in America.

"This abrupt halt to refugee admissions is devastating for families who have already endured unimaginable hardship and waited years for the chance to rebuild their lives in safety," Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Global Refuge, one of the 10 US resettlement agencies, said in a statement Wednesday.

"Refugees go through one of the most rigorous vetting processes in the world, and many are now seeing their travel canceled just days, or even hours, before they were set to begin their new lives in the United States," she said. "It’s utterly heartbreaking."

Refugees are distinct from people who come directly to the US-Mexico border with the goal of eventually seeking asylum. Refugees must be living outside of the US to be considered for resettlement and are usually referred to the State Department by the United Nations.

While the resettlement program has historically enjoyed bipartisan support, the first Trump administration also temporarily halted resettlement and then lowered the number of refugees who could enter the country annually.

North Korea Warns 'Offensive Action' over Allies' Drills