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(2nd LD) N. Korea threatens to use nukes against S. Korean-U.S. joint naval drills: KCNA
SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea Saturday threatened to counter with nuclear weapons the joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States in the East Sea on Sunday.
"The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, citing a statement issued by the North's powerful National Defense Commission. DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
South Korea and the U.S. will conduct the naval drills in the East Sea for four days as the first in a series of exercises scheduled for the coming month in the Yellow and East seas to show joint deterrence against North Korea's torpedoing of the South Korean warship Cheonan.
North Korea denies any role in the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors in the Yellow Sea in March. The U.N. Security Council earlier this month condemned the attack, but did not directly blame the North.
"It is a legitimate and sovereign right to protect the honor and dignity of the DPRK for them to probe the truth about the despicable 'fabrication' and 'charade,'" the statement said, adding that Pyongyang will "take all steps to the last to thoroughly probe the truth behind the case."
In response to the latest warning, South Korea's military said it is closely monitoring the North's military moves at border areas, but hasn't detected any abnormal activities.
"We are reinforcing surveillance in the Military Demarcation Line and other areas, but there have been no noticeable moves," said an official for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the inter-Korean border.
North Korea has proposed to send its own team to South Korea to verify the outcome of the international probe of the Cheonan's sinking blamed on a torpedo fired by a North Korean mini-submarine, which Seoul has rejected.
The threat of nuclear war comes as diplomats are preparing for a statement to be issued later in the day to define the nature of the incident in Hanoi, Vietnam, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
The National Defense Commission denounced South Korea and the U.S. for "rendering the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the worst phase under the pretext of the Cheonan case," warning "The U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces will keenly realize what high price they will have to pay for their reckless military provocation."
The North's statement comes just hours after the U.S. dismissed the North's threat of a "physical response" to the exercises made Friday by North Korean diplomats in Hanoi.
"It would be unwise," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. "We certainly don't think it would be fruitful for North Korea to increase tensions in the region at this point. Our planned exercises, as we've indicated, are defensive in nature."
The North's statement said the joint exercises will only help enhance its nuclear arsenal and delay the process for Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament through six-party talks.
"The more desperately the U.S. imperialists brandish their nukes and the more zealously their lackeys follow them, the more rapidly the DPRK's nuclear deterrence will be bolstered up along the orbit of self-defense and the more remote the prospect for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will be become," it said.
North Korean diplomats attending the security forum in Vietnam Friday reiterated calls for an end to the sanctions imposed on North Korea and the signing of a peace treaty as conditions to returning to the six-party talks, which have been stalled since early last year. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a treaty.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not meet with North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun in Hanoi, Crowley said, but added the top U.S. diplomat met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to discuss North Korea and other issues.
China, North Korea's major ally and a veto-wielding council member, is the host of the six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, which have been deadlocked over U.N. sanctions imposed after Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests early last year.
Yang demanded Friday that all parties concerned turn the page on the Cheonan incident for an early revival of the six-party talks.
Crowley did not elaborate on Clinton's meeting with Yang.
"She also had the opportunity in Hanoi to meet with her counterparts from China, Russia and Japan," he said. "I haven't got a full readout, since they're in the air, of those meetings, but fully expect that issues regarding North Korea and Iran ... were among the key issues discussed."
Clinton said in Seoul on Wednesday the time is not ripe for the resumption of the talks.
A new round "is not something we're looking at yet," Clinton said, noting that North Korea has shown no commitment to halt provocative actions or forswear nuclear weapons. "To date, we have seen nothing."
The U.S. said Wednesday that it will blacklist more North Korean entities and individuals within two weeks to cut off money flowing to its leaders through the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and counterfeit and luxury goods in violation of U.N. resolutions.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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