hankyoreh

North Korean news media have stepped up their offensive on a joint military drill involving South Korea and the United States that started early this week, calling it a "frantic war move."

The North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station, monitored here, said on Monday the joint military exercises, codenamed "Key Resolve", are "aimed at the rapid deployment of the U.S.

imperialist aggressor forces and South Korean forces, the formation of combined forces and commando operations against the DPRK for another Korean war."

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"An extremely dangerous situation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula due to the frantic war moves by the U.S. imperialists and South Korean forces," the radio report said.

It also said the North Korean military and the people are carefully watching the maneuvers by the "U.S. and South Korean warmonger" and are ready to strike back in case of any attack.

The report followed a statement issued Sunday by an unnamed spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the (North) Korean People's Army (KPA).

"If the U.S.and South Korean bellicose forces persistently work to realize their scenario to stifle the DPRK by force of arms at any cost, the KPA will not stand passively on the defensive but counter it with positive retaliatory strikes by mobilizing all means long built up by the DPRK at a high price," the statement said.

On the same day, an unnamed spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a similar statement, claiming that indiscriminate maneuvers by the "warmongers" are laying a grave obstacle to the denuclearization and the peace of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea and the U.S. began the six-day "Key Resolve" maneuver Sunday to deter potential military threat from North Korea amid Pyongyang's accusations that they are staging a "massive war game" in preparation to invade the North.

The annual military drill involves a great portion of the 650,000 South Korean troops, as well as about 12,000 U.S. forces stationed in South Korea and 6,000 U.S. troop reinforcements from the U.S. mainland and Pacific bases, according to the South Korean military.

Some 28,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas technically remain at war, as the Korean War ended with an armistice treaty.


SEOUL, March 3 (Yonhap)