North Korea Warns of ‘Serious Consequences’ as Kamala Harris Condemns ‘Tyrant’ Kim Jong Un

North Korea has warned the United States of “serious consequences” after Washington provided South Korea with military hardware including Apache helicopters.

Pyongyang’s warning comes in the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris branding Kim Jong Un a tyrant at the Democratic National Convention.

In a public statement released on Friday, Pyongyang condemned a series of joint military exercises between the South Korean army and the U.S. army, which coincided with the sale of 36 Apache attack helicopters.

The condemnation, which described South Korea as a “vassal force” and the U.S. as “recklessly provocative”, coincided with Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention, where she called North Korean leader Kim Kong Un a “tyrant and and a dictator.”

In the statement, published by the Department of Press and Information of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, the Chief of Foreign News said: “We strongly oppose and reject the U.S. and its vassal forces’ arms buildup posing a grave danger to the regional security environment and escalating the military tension and warn them seriously of the consequences to be entailed by it.

“Amid the ever-escalating political and military tension in the Korean peninsula due to the U.S.-ROK large-scale joint military drills, the U.S. announced the sale of offensive weapons to the ROK. This is a reckless provocative act of deliberately increasing the security instability in the region.

“The DPRK will steadily conduct the necessary military activities for self-defence to control the military imbalance and instability that may be caused by the military moves and delivery of lethal equipment of the hostile forces getting more reckless with the passage of time.”

Newsweek contacted the United States Indo-Pacific Command for comment on North Korea’s statements.

The statement came just a few hours after Vice President Kamala Harris took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention, where she said: “I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists. And I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim-Jong-Un, who are rooting for Trump.”

The joint U.S.-South Korean exercises, named “Ulchi Freedom Shield,” will involve over 40 types of field exercises, as well as drills intended to simulate missile attacks, GPS jamming and cyberattacks.

According to a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, quoted by Reuters, the alliance’s bilateral exercises will also “further strengthen its capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction.”

Joint exercises such as this have happened regularly in the past. This year, the “war game” will simulate how soldiers and civilians might react to a nuclear attack from North Korea.

Furthermore, the exercises coincide with an arms sale of 36 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters from the U.S. to South Korea, further bolstering the American ally’s military capabilities. The U.S. Air Force has also made use of a spy plane, an RC-135W Rivet Joint to monitor North Korean reactions to the exercises.

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