On Sunday, South Korea and the United States began their largest-ever joint exercises amid increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula. On Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered the military to prepare to use its nuclear weapons at any moment in light of the exercise, according to the country’s state media reports.
"We should never ignore North Korean bluster. But not can we capitulate… We should stand firm but seek to deescalate even verbal confrontations and also try to find a path forward on negotiations," Brookings Institution Foreign Policy Program Research Director Michael O'Hanlon said.
Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution to extend existing sanctions on Pyongyang in response to the country’s fourth nuclear bomb test in January and long-range rocket launches in breach of the existing Security Council resolutions.
"Thus far, sanctions have not succeeded by themselves. Additional measures will be required… [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un seeks state security through nuclear development. But I am not sure that this strategy will ever make Kim Jong Un feel sufficiently secure," Snyder explained.
South Korea and the United States hold joint exercises on the Korean peninsula every spring. Some 17,000 US servicemen will participate in this year’s round of training, which is said to be the largest number of US forces in South Korea in decades. The United States stepped up efforts at deploying strategic weaponry in South Korea in response to the North Korean violations of UN resolutions.
During last year's Seoul-Washington exercises, Pyongyang fired short-range ballistic and surface-to-air missiles as it believed the drills to be part of an invasion to the North.
