US Deploys F-16 "Super Squadron" Closer To North Korea Border After Kim's Ultimatum

The United States is expanding its military footprint on the Korean Peninsula by establishing another elite air unit near the demilitarized zone, which is apparently in response to Pyongyang’s last week announcement that it will only enter negotiations if the US abandons its demand for denuclearization.

The Department of Defense confirmed the US recently transferred 31 F-16 fighter jets from Kunsan Air Base to Osan Air Base, with a purpose to „consolidate air power and enhance combat readiness” in the region.

The Pentagon indicated this marks the second such „super squadron” the US has stationed in South Korea. Osan lies several dozen miles north of Kunsan, closer to the demilitarized zone with North Korea, and so the Kim Jong Un government will no doubt see this as a serious provocation.

Source: Indiana Air National Guard

Lt. Gen. David. R. Iverson, head of the Seventh Air Force and US Forces Korea deputy commander, has described this change as „an opportunity for us to see if squadrons of this size increase our training effectiveness while also increasing our combat capability if deterrence fails.”

According to details in Task & Purpose:

Now the Air Force is initiating phase two of the tests, with the creation of a brand new super squadron at Osan. Alongside the 31 planes, roughly 1,000 airmen from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan will transfer to the northern air base as part of this build up. The Air Force described the second phase as a “temporary” shift. The second super squadron is expected to be operational by October, and the second phase will last through October 2026.

North Korea has meanwhile insisted that any future dialogue with the US remains off the table unless Washington recognizes its status as a nuclear-armed nation.

Days ago, Kim Yo-jong, who is the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior official in the country’s ruling Workers Party, stated that „Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state, which was established along with the existence of a powerful nuclear deterrent and fixed by the supreme law reflecting the unanimous will of all the DPRK people, will be thoroughly rejected.”

„The DPRK is open to any option in defending its present national position,” she had added. It is by „no means beneficial” for the US and North Korea to be in confrontation, so the Trump administration should „seek another way of contact on the basis of such new thinking.”

Still, even as the Pentagon is conducing a provocative force posture shift with the movement of its jet squadron, Seoul is taking steps to defuse tensions by dismantling propaganda speakers at the border:

South Korean authorities began removing loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country’s border, Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense has said, as the new government of President Lee Jae-myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

“Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,” Lee Kyung-ho, spokesman of South Korea’s Defence Ministry, told reporters on Monday.

Source: Air Force News Agency

While Pyongyang has in the past reciprocated 'good-faith’ actions like this, the continued large presence of American forces on the peninsula will remain a big problem – also given the fact that in recent years the US has docked nuclear-powered submarines at South Korean ports at various times.