North Korea: Rockets on ‘Standby’ as US Bombers Take Flight

Systems Had Already Been Reported at Highest Readiness Weeks Ago

With US nuclear-capable stealth bombers looming over the Korean Peninsula, North Korea is also continuing to ratchet up the rhetoric, saying they have put all of their rockets on “standby” is response to the threat.

The threats going back and forth are seemingly empty, with North Korea repeatedly claiming their missile systems have been upgrade to “highest” possible levels of readiness only to find another even higher level of alert for a new announcement.

And while the US continues to lash North Korea for its bellicose statements, they are responding seemingly in kind, adding more and more nuke-capable bombers to the theater and talking up plans for war.

Though these periods of tit-for-tat threats are nothing new, they do occasionally lead to incidents of violence along the disputed border, and with the latest US pact with South Korea, even a minor incident could conceivably lead to a precipitous escalation.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.