US, S.Korea launch air drills amid N.Korea’s warnings of nuclear war

US, South Korea launch large-scale air drills amid spiraling nuclear tension. [Photo: Courtesy]

The United States and South Korea went ahead with large-scale joint aerial drills on Monday, a move North Korea had said would push the Korean peninsula to “the brink of nuclear war”, ignoring calls from Russia and China to call them off.

The drills come a week after North Korea said it had tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States as part of a weapons program that it has conducted in defiance of international sanctions and condemnation.