SEOUL: South Korea and the US wrapped up their annual large-scale military drills on Sunday, but continued a separate joint naval exercise that has triggered dire threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been running sky-high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test — and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response.
The massive “Foal Eagle” drill, which the Defense Ministry in Seoul said was ending as scheduled on Sunday, involved around 20,000 South Korean and 10,000 US troops. Another annual joint exercise known as “Key Resolve” ended last month.
Both play out scenarios for a conflict with North Korea, but Seoul and Washington insist they are purely defensive in nature, despite Pyongyang’s claims that they are provocative rehearsals for invasion.
Their conclusion normally signals a period of relative calm in North-South tensions, but this year the situation looks set to remain highly volatile.
US President Donald Trump has warned of a possible “major conflict” while Pyongyang has carried out a series of failed missile tests, including one on Saturday, and a massive live-fire military exercise.
The ministry confirmed Sunday that a joint naval drill with a US strike group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, was still ongoing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
The exercise, aimed at verifying the allies’ capability to track and intercept enemy ballistic missiles, is expected to continue until sometime next week.
Through state media, North Korea has threatened to attack the Carl Vinson, and a state-sponsored website on Sunday also warned of a possible strike against a US nuclear-powered submarine despatched to the area.
China is “putting pressure” on its ally North Korea to curb its weapons programs, Trump told the CBS television network’s “Face the Nation” program. If North Korea carries out another nuclear test, “I would not be happy,” he said.
“And I can tell you also, I don’t believe that the president of China, who is a very respected man, will be happy either,” Trump said in excerpts of the interview released Saturday.
Asked if “not happy” signified “military action,” Trump answered: “I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.”
Pyongyang’s show of defiance included a failed missile test on Saturday that came just hours after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the UN Security Council of “catastrophic consequences” if the international community — most notably China — failed to pressure the North into abandoning its weapons program. Military options for dealing with the North were still “on the table,” Tillerson said.
China has repeatedly pushed back at the idea that it alone holds the solution to curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions, and warned that any use of US force would only lead to “bigger disasters.”
Pope Francis this weekend called for negotiations to resolve tensions over North Korea.
South Korea, US conduct military drills despite Pyongyang threats
South Korea, US conduct military drills despite Pyongyang threats
More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US
- “Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X
DALLAS: More than 9,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a major storm expected to wreak havoc across much of the country threatens to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England.
The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X.
Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 24 Celsius.
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted.
Temperatures reached minus 34 C just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
