North Korea has vowed to retaliate to the US's provocations with the "toughest possible" response after Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin pledged to boost militarization in the peninsula.

In a statement published on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry of North Korea said that the Biden administration brought the "military and political situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region" to an "extreme red line."

It added that "the US is going to ignite an all-out showdown with the DPRK" through continued combined drills whose scale and scope are largely extended, including a "drill for operating extended deterrence" and the "largest-ever field mobile live shell firing drill simulating the use of nuclear weapons, together with South Korea from February."

The statement further says, "During [Austin's] visit to South Korea on January 31, the US Defense Secretary openly declared that the US would deploy more strategic assets such as the fifth generation stealth fighters and nuclear carriers, unhesitatingly talking about the use of nuclear weapons against the DPRK."

"This is a vivid expression of the US dangerous scenario which will result in turning the Korean peninsula into a huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone," it further states. 

Escalation in peninsula due to hostile policy of US

The statement proceeds by stating that North Koreans clearly see the intentions of the US, and that the DPRK has a clear counteracting strategy that is "capable of coping with any short- and long-term scheme implemented by the US and its vassal forces."
  
"If the US continues to introduce strategic assets into the Korean peninsula and its surrounding area, the DPRK will make clearer its deterring activities without fail according to their nature," DPRK officials vowed. 

"The DPRK is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the US as long as it pursues its hostile policy and confrontational line," it states.

"The escalating tension on the Korean peninsula and in the region is entirely attributable to the hostile policy of the US, which forces the DPRK to disarm itself unilaterally by means of sanctions and military pressure” while it “pursues the military expansion of its allies."

 "The decades-long history of the DPRK-US confrontation shows that the DPRK should deal with the US imperialists by force only, as they are dreaming of disarming the DPRK and bringing down its social system with the 'end' of the DPRK set as a goal of their state administration," the statement noted.
 
"The more dangerous the US threat to the DPRK gets, the stronger backfire the US will face in direct proportion to it," it concludes.

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US, South Korea expand drills

In light of an ongoing tour across the pacific, Austin met with South Korean counterpart Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup in Seoul yesterday where the American official spoke of deploying more strategic assets such as nuclear weapons to 'defend' South Korea. 

A joint statement released by the Pentagon read that "the two leaders also pledged to further expand and bolster the level and scale of this year's combined exercises and training."

The defense chiefs also agreed on the importance of taking into account changes in the security environment, hinting at the DPRK's responses to their past military drills and US movement in the region.

Furthermore, Lee and Austin stated their intention to work closely together on the deployment of US strategic weapons on the Korean Peninsula.

The United States is committed to meeting its obligations to contain North Korea by using all military means available, including the country's nuclear capabilities, Austin further said on Tuesday.
 
"The United States stands firm in its extended deterrence commitment. That includes the full range of US defense capabilities, including our conventional, nuclear, and missile defense capabilities," he said.

North Korea conducted dozens of missile tests in 2022, sometimes firing multiple missiles at once. It launched more than 20 short-range missiles on November 2. North Korea's military activities, according to Pyongyang, are in response to provocations by the United States, South Korea, and Japan.

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