Pyongyang’s military deployed fighter jets to scramble a US spy plane after it intruded into North Korea’s economic zone in a major escalation, according to a state media report.
North Korea blasted Thursday’s incident as a “dangerous military provocation” and warned it is mulling over measures to fend off future incursions, an unnamed spokesperson of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said in a KCNA report on Friday.
It comes as President Joe Biden hosts a key summit at Camp David on Friday with South Korean and Japanese representatives.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will both attend the summit in Maryland and it comes as North Korean dicitator Kim Jong-Un continues to ramp up his nuclear threats.
Yoo Sang-bum, a South Korean MP, warned earlier this week that North Korea could take military action and even launch an intercontinental ballistic missile in protest at Friday’s summit.
North Korea recently announced new alarming developments in its ballistic missile program.
Pyongyang test-launched its powerful Hwasong-18 missile twice in recent months in a major threat to its regional adversaries and the West.
Meanwhile, South Korea and the US are set due to start an 11-day period of joint military drills on Monday as North Korean aggression looms large.
Now, the US is scrambling to help its allies South Korea and Japan achieve peace and stability in the region.
White House National Security Adviser John Kirby said ahead of the Camp David summit the three nations will “announce significant initiatives on Friday which will help cement our trilateral cooperation going forward”.
He added: “These initiatives will take our trilateral relationship to new heights as we work together to deliver benefits for our people and for people across the region.”
Kirby continued that the location of the summit was selected to “signify and to demonstrate how seriously” Biden takes the trilateral partnership between the US, Japan and South Korea.
He said: “That’s what Camp David sort of stands for. It stands for that significance. It stands for that gravity and that weight.”
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