Seoul, Feb 24: North Korea today denounced plans for joint US-South Korean military drills as 'escalating the military threat' to the North and sabotaging reconciliation projects on the divided Korean peninsula. In a commentary carried by North Korea's official news agency, the communist nation said the upcoming war games were aimed at blocking reunification and a warming of relations that began with a landmark summit between the nations in 2000. It also said the maneuvers would only aggravate tensions at a time when the United States is locked in a standoff with the North over its suspected nuclear weapons program.
"The South Korean military authorities are following the US criminal policy of aggression ... Thus escalating the military threat," the agency reported. The US military announced last week that it will conduct the exercises with South Korea next month but denied that the annual maneuvers are related to the dispute over North Korea's nuclear programs. The US military command in Seoul described the joint drills as "defence-oriented" and designed to improve the US-South Korea forces' ability to defend South Korea against "external aggression."
Bureau Report