China carries out OWN drills as it attacks USA for pushing North Korea to nuclear war
CHINA has lashed out at Donald Trump and the USA for missing a vital chance to stop nuclear war with North Korea, as it carries out its own drills.
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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was “regrettable” the USA and South Korea has not “grasped the window of opportunity” to cool tensions with Kim Jong-un during two months of relative calm before the North’s latest missile strike.
The USA has today pushed ahead with a series of major drills alongside South Korea, despite warnings from Pyongyang it would push the Korean peninsula to “the brink of nuclear war”.
And fearing conflict, China’s Air Force sent its surveillance aircraft to the Yellow Sea and East China Sea in the last few days to "improve combat-readiness and safeguard the country's strategic interests”, it revealed today.
The aircraft took a flight path not previously flown to regions they had never previously operated in, and coordinated with fighter jets, alert aircraft and guided missile forces, spokesman Shen Jinke said, according to a post on the Air Force's official microblog.
The USA’s drills today, continuing until Friday, come a week after North Korea carried out its more advanced intercontinental ballistic missile test, capable of reaching America.
Russia had joined China in urging for the cancellation of the five day programme, in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programmes. Beijing formally calls the idea the "dual suspension" proposal.
But today six F-22 Raptor stealth fighters were deployed among the more than 230 aircraft taking part in the annual drill, called Vigilant Ace.
North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country called US President Donald Trump "insane" on Sunday and said the drills would "push the already acute situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war".
F-35 fighters will also join the drills, which will include the largest number of 5th generation fighters ever to have taken part, according to a South Korea-based US Air Force spokesman.
About 12,000 US service members, including from the Marines and Navy, will join South Korean troops. Aircraft taking part will be flown from eight U.S. and South Korean military installations.
South Korean media reports said B-1B Lancer bombers could join the exercise this week. The US Air Force spokesman could not confirm the reports.
Mr Trump said last week additional major sanctions would be imposed on North Korea after Pyongyang's intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Earlier last month, Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that allows the United States to impose more sanctions.
Russia has accused the United States of trying to provoke North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into "flying off the handle" over his missile programme to hand Washington a pretext to destroy his country.
Speaking at a news briefing in Beijing, Mr Wang said China consistently opposed any behaviour that elevated tensions.
When asked about the prospect of further US sanctions against North Korea, Mr Wang added: "And measures that don't abide by or are outside the UN Security Council resolutions lack basis in international law and damage the rights of United Nations members."
The joint exercises between South Korea and United States are designed to enhance readiness and operational capability and to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula, the US military had said before the drills began.
North Korea has tested dozens of ballistic missiles and conducted its sixth and largest nuclear bomb test in September, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.
It has said its weapons programmes are a necessary defence against US plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, denies any such intention.
Pictures emerged today of crowds of North Korean army-civilians celebrating Kim Jong-un’s latest missile launch at a rally.
Thousands of people lined up perfectly to cheer in sync in the images released via North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).