![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17233346734649.jpg.jpg\")
Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who visited Seoul with other lawmakers, said Tuesday that a dialogue would be the best way to defuse the North Korean nuclear standoff though he argues the United States and its allies must be ready to respond to potential aggression by North Korea with \u201coverwhelming force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTalking with North Korea is not a concession, it is the only way to reach an agreement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and to reinforce that our military strength is there only to deter aggression and to defend against attack,\u201d Markey told a news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month North Korea test-launched two ICBMs at highly lofted angles, and outside experts say those missiles can reach Alaska, Los Angeles or Chicago if fired at normal, flattened trajectories. Analysts say it will be only a matter of time for the North to achieve its long-stated goal of acquiring a nuclear missile that can strike anywhere in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, Trump pledged to answer North Korean aggression with \u201cfire and fury\u201d and later said a military solution was \u201clocked and loaded.\u201d North Korea, for its part, threatened to launch missiles toward the American territory of Guam before Kim Jong Un said he would first watch how Washington acts before going ahead with the missile launch plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ulchi drills are largely computer-simulated war games held every summer, and this year\u2019s exercise involves 17,500 American troops and 50,000 South Korean soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No field training like live-fire exercises or tank maneuvering is involved in the Ulchi drills, in which alliance officers sit at computers to practice how they would engage in battles and hone their decision-making capabilities. The allies have said the drills are defensive in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Associated Press video journalist Chang Yong-jun contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Korea\u2019s military on Tuesday greeted the start of annual U.S.-South Korean military drills with its standard fiery threats, vowing \u201cmerciless retaliation\u201d for exercises Pyongyang claims are an invasion rehearsal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[666],"class_list":["post-56872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"6QV7DDPR65BTLPORVCUU5FHK3A","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2017\/08\/22\/north-korea-issues-trademark-fiery-rhetoric-over-us-south-korea-drills\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n