MOSCOW, Oct 31 on Monday, the joint US-South Korean military exercise Vigilant Storm, the Yonhap news agency reported.
According to it, the exercises are intended to send a «strong signal» to the DPRK, which is expected to conduct its seventh nuclear weapons test. At the same time, Yonhap acknowledges that a show of force by the United States and South Korea could provoke Pyongyang to retaliate.
Vigilant Storm exercises to last until November 4th. They will involve about 140 aircraft of the South Korean Air Force, including F-35A, F-15K, KF-16 fighters, a KC-330 refueling aircraft, and from the American side — about a hundred aircraft, including F-35B fighters, an aircraft electronic reconnaissance EA-18, spy plane U-2.
In addition, troops of the Marine Corps, Navy and US Army are thrown into the exercises. For the first time, an Australian Air Force KC-30A tanker aircraft and an F-35B stealth fighter from the Iwakuni airbase in Japan will join the exercises in South Korea. until the armistice agreement was signed. Pyongyang has repeatedly sought to replace this agreement with a peace treaty, but the Americans evade this and keep about 28,500 of their soldiers in the south of the peninsula under the pretext of the «North Korean threat».