Last week, North Korea fired four banned ballistic missiles that landed in the East Sea inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from its coastline. North Korea said they fired the missiles because A.) they were practicing to hit U.S. military bases in Japan and B.) because the United States and South Korea are currently engaged in their annual joint military drills. Of course this is bullshit because North Korea is firing banned missiles, joint military drills or not. Well, America just fired their own shots by adding three extremely lethal aspects of the U.S. military to this year’s annual Foal Eagle military drills.
The Foal Eagle exercise includes 3,600 U.S. troops, in addition to the 28,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea. The reason for the joint drills is to prepare air, land, and sea military operations in case a conflict with North Korea and South Korea erupts. Making their first appearance to the joint military exercises is the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group, better known as U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6. They are the same Navy SEAL team that took out Osama bin Laden. The SEALs, who are currently on the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, should arrive in South Korea on Wednesday.
Joining the SEALs are the Army Special Forces, plus the 5th generation supersonic stealth fighter, the F-35, South Korea’s Joon Gang Daily reports. The F-35 will simulate attacks on North Korea’s missile infrastructure, the South Korean paper reports.
WATCH Last Year’s Foal Eagle Joint Military Exercises
From Business Insider:
South Korean news outlets report that the SEALs, who will join the exercise for the first time, will simulate a “decapitation attack,” or a strike to remove North Korea’s leadership.
Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Gary Ross later told Business Insider that the US military “does not train for decapitation missions” of any kind.
Yet a decapitation force would fit with a March 1 Wall Street Journal report that the White House is considering military action against the Kim regime.
“A bigger number of and more diverse US special operation forces will take part in this year’s Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North’s war command and demolition of its key military facilities,” an unnamed military official told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The entire region is on edge, not only because of the missile launch or the military drills, but also because of the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother in Malaysia. Plus China is furious that the United States deployed a THAAD defense system in South Korea.
Meanwhile back in Pyongyang. When there are military drills right outside your country planning your demise.
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[BusinessInsider via Brandon]