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(LEAD) N. Korea warns S. Korea, U.S. will pay 'high price' for war drill
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday blasted a planned South Korea-U.S. war drill as "war preparation maneuver" and warned that the two countries will pay a "high price" if they go ahead with it.
"The war preparation maneuver being made by the United States and South Korea will bring a wind of fire to the Korean Peninsula and they will be forced to pay a high price for this, as it goes against peace and against the times," the North's Korean Central News Agency said.
The two allies said Wednesday they will go ahead with their Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise, set for March 9-20, amid mounting tension on the peninsula.
Earlier Thursday, North Korea renewed its warning against Seoul's Lee Myung-bak administration, saying "the Korean People's Army is fully ready for an all-out confrontation." The threat was more specific than a Jan. 17 statement, in which the military said its forces have been "compelled to take an all-out confrontational posture to shatter them," referring to the South Korean government.
Military tension along the peninsula has risen sharply as North Korea intensifies its coercive rhetoric against the conservative Lee government. On Jan. 30, an inter-Korean committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party said it will void all inter-Korean non-aggression accords and will not acknowledge their western sea border.
The Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea was drawn unilaterally by the U.N. Command after the Korean War. Pyongyang has insisted it should be redrawn further south. Two bloody skirmishes have occurred along the volatile border in the past decade, leaving scores of soldiers dead and wounded on both sides.
South Korea has put its naval forces on heightened alert along the sea border.
"The evil invasion scheme of the United States and the South Korean war mongers is becoming extreme," the KCNA said, "If they don't have any intention to invade North Korea and are willing to respect the sovereignty of our republic, there would be no need for such a war scenario against us."
The latest statement follows intelligence that North Korea appears to be preparing to test-fire a long-range missile from its northeastern coast.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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