N. Korea condemns military drills

US and South Korea plan joint maneuvers next week

N. Korea condemns military drills
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 06:47:20
PRESS TV, Iran
Source: Agencies


North Korean Military blasts the joint military maneuvers by the US and South Korean militaries due to start next week.
North Korea calls on the US military to halt military maneuvers with South Korean forces, saying that such drills could undermine the recent arrangement, which seeks to freeze Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
In one of the meetings of senior North Korean military officials and US forces in South Korea, North Koreans warned their American counterparts that it "cannot remain a passive onlooker to the drills, doing nothing," Korean Central News Agency reports.
US army officials said that the drills were defensive in nature and were not directed against North Korea.
Pyongyang has many times expressed dissatisfaction with joint military exercises by the US and South Korean armies and considers such drills as directed against itself. It previously warned that the drills have forced it to boost its deterrence capabilities.
A communiqué by the North Korean military said, "The US will be held wholly responsible for the catastrophic impact the above-said saber rattling will have on the implementation of the Feb.13 agreement and the six party talks."
The government in Pyongyang has been at loggerheads with the US and South Korea since the armistice that ended 1950-53 Korean War.
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