North Korea threatens attack due to war drills
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday August 22, 12:51 PM Reuters
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North Korea threatens attack due to war drills*
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said it was considering a pre-emptive
attack to counter a U.S.-South Korean joint military training drill that
Pyongyang sees as a "war action," its official media reported on Tuesday.
In its official media, North Korea said the drills were "an undisguised
military threat and blackmail against the DPRK (North Korea) and a war
action".
The drills were a violation of the truce that ended the 1950-1953 Korean
War, it said.
"The Korean Peoples' Army side, therefore, reserves the right to
undertake a pre-emptive action for self-defence against the enemy at a
crucial time it deems necessary to defend itself," the North's KCNA news
agency cited an army spokesman as saying.
U.S. and South Korean troops began military drills on Monday dubbed
Ulchi Focus Lens that are aimed at testing command structures and
communications.
The annual exercise has been held without incident since they began in
1975 and the North usually brands them as a prelude to invasion and
nuclear war.
But the drills this year are being held with tensions high on the
peninsula after North Korea test-fired a barrage of missiles on July 5
and reports last week it may preparing to test a nuclear weapon.
U.S. television network ABC news reported that a U.S. intelligence
agency had observed suspicious vehicle movements at a suspected North
Korean test site. It quoted an unidentified senior State Department
official as saying a test was a real possibility.
Other intelligence experts say there is no sign of an imminent test.
The United States keeps about 30,000 troops in the South to support more
than 650,000 troops South Korea has in uniform. North Korea has a
1.2-million-strong army, mostly stationed near the heavily fortified
border with the South.
The two Koreas are technically still at war because the Korean War ended
with a cease fire and not a peace treaty.
Six party talks aimed at getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear
programmes and discuss a permanent peace on the peninsula have stalled.
Pyongyang, angry over U.S. financial sanctions over alleged illicit
activities, refuses to attend.