hankyoreh

Kim Myong-gil, North Korea’s chief negotiator for the US, tells reporters that the North Korea-US working-level talks “broke down” in Stockholm, Sweden, on Oct. 5. Kwon Jong-gun is standing to the right of Kim. (Hankyoreh archives)

A North Korean diplomat who attended the North Korea-US working level talks in Stockholm last month has condemned a joint air exercise that South Korea and the US are planning as a “declaration of confrontation.” The exercises, the diplomat said, are a “provocative and dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the spark of DPRK [North Korea]-US dialogue.”

The comments came in a Nov. 6 statement signed by Kwon Jong-gun, roving ambassador for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry. “Shortly [before], the US Defense Department officially announced that it is pushing ahead with the procedure for resuming the combined aerial exercise with the [S]outh Korean army in December. The US committed itself to stopping military exercises against the DPRK after [the] Singapore DPRK-US summit,” Kwon said in the statement.

“The US reckless military frenzy is an extremely provocative and dangerous act of throwing a wet blanket over the spark of the DPRK-US dialogue [which is] on the verge of extinction and stoking the atmosphere of confrontation on the Korean peninsula and the region.”

The “combined aerial exercise” to which Kwon referred appears to be the Vigilant Ace joint air exercise, an annual exercise held since 2015 by South Korea and the US. Since last year, however, amid a push for peace on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea and the US have halted the exercise by that name and have been holding separate drills, as well as joint exercises at the battalion level and below.

This year, the South Korean Air Force and the US 7th Air Force are reportedly planning to carry out drills at or below the battalion level, similar to exercises held in mid-November 2018.

In connection with this, the US Defense Department announced on Nov. 7 that it was taking steps to carry out the joint air exercises this year as planned, but that it would not use the name “Vigilant Ace.” Kwon was presumably referring to this announcement when he criticized South Korea and the US for engaging in acts of hostility against the North.

“No one will believe that the changed [name of the] war exercises will change their [aggressive] nature. We have already emphasized more than once that the planned joint military exercise can block [. . .] DPRK-US relations from advancing and compel us to reconsider the crucial measures we have already taken,” Kwon said. In effect, North Korea was warning that it could reverse the steps it has taken toward denuclearization.

“Our patience is nearing [its] limitations and we will never remain an onlooker to the reckless military moves of the US,” Kwon said.

“The US announcement of the combined aerial exercise plan [. . .] a month [after] the breakdown of the Stockholm DPRK-US technical negotiations amounts to a declaration of confrontation with the DPRK.”

“The US intention to openly hold [a] war exercise against the DPRK at a sensitive time when the whole world is concerned about the prospect of [. . .] DPRK-US relations clearly proves again its nature as the chieftain harassing world peace and security and the hegemonic state [that regards] the recourse to military strength as a [cure-all] in settling issues.”

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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