What is the Max Thunder Exercise that North Korea is Complaining About?

Here are some details about the Max Thunder exercise that North Korea is complaining about:

An F-22 Raptor stealth fighter lands at a military base in Gwangju, Wednesday, amid Max Thunder, a joint military drill between the Air Forces of South Korea and the U.S. / Yonhap

Max Thunder, which North Korea claims is the cause of its decision to cancel high-level talks with the South, is a joint military drill between the Air Forces of South Korea and the United States.

It has been held every May since 2009, with this year’s drill starting May 11 and continuing for two weeks.

The drills include annual defensive exercises with mock combat, and the number of fighter jets and troops this year is similar to those in years past, with some 100 aircraft from both countries participating, according to the Korean Air Force.

This year, eight of the U.S.’s F-22 Raptor stealth fighters were deployed for the drills for the first time. It is said the Raptor fighters can penetrate North Korea’s radar fence and make surgical strikes against strategic facilities.

But unlike the initial plan, B-52 strategic bombers, one of the U.S.’s strategic assets, will not be deployed, amid ongoing talks about North Korea’s denuclearization. Pyongyang has been sensitive about the bomber which can carry nuclear weapons.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but this is a fairly low level exercise compared to the Key Resolve and UFG exercises. Plus as the article states this low level exercise was even further downgraded by not including the B-52’s.  So it is pretty clear to me that it is just being used as an excuse by the Kim regime to send a message to the Trump administration to reign in officials bringing up suggestions to discuss forbidden topics such as human rights at the upcoming June 12th summit.

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setnaffa
setnaffa
7 years ago

Korea Times makes CNN look accurate, fair, and balanced. And they make my neice’s elementary school newspaper look professional.

Flyingsword
Flyingsword
7 years ago

imagine that, nK already crying and blaming others for the failure of the agreement in order to justify its continued nuke program. Who, besides commie moon, didn’t see this coming?

setnaffa
setnaffa
7 years ago

Flyingsword, i’ll bet every one of them saw it too. They want to use it as an excuse to bribe him back to the talks.

But Trump, Pompeo, and Mattis might not play the game like previous American administrations.

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
7 years ago

Commie Moon just needs to send back the defectors, oil and gold bars and the Fat baby will keep quiet.

MTB Rider
MTB Rider
7 years ago

Of course Fatty has his input, a few days late:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/north-korea-calls-south-korea-ignorant-incompetent-in-meltdown-over-days-old-military-drills/

North Korea’s top negotiator called South Korea’s government “ignorant and incompetent” on Thursday in the latest installment of Pyongyang lashing out at the U.S. and Seoul for essentially carrying out business as usual.

Ri Son Gwon, the North Korean negotiator, slammed South Korea for participating in military drills with the U.S., following up a series of statements on Tuesday when Pyongyang canceled talks with Seoul and threatened to cancel a planned summit with President Donald Trump.

The funniest bit was the North complaining about the B-52s… Which weren’t included in this year’s training because the peace talks were going so well.

Yep, Fatty is going to break the deal, sooner than later.
Heck, he may even blame it on the fact that people at South Korea’s No. 1 Blogsite ROKDrop keep calling him “Fatty.”

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
7 years ago

His Lips and Teeth Chinese allies started it first!

J6Junkie
J6Junkie
7 years ago

I love when Commie schemes fail.

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