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N. Korea slams U.S., S. Korea for nearly ended military drill
SEOUL, March 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea denounced a joint U.S.-South Korean military drill Wednesday, with its state news agency releasing what it calls a "memorandum" accusing the allies of rehearsing a nuclear invasion of the communist nation.
North Korean state news outlets have issued similar statements on issues the regime considers important, though it is not common. Wednesday's "memorandum" from the official Korean Central News Agency marked the first released by the North's media on the annual military exercise.
The statement was largely a repeat of what the North has alleged so far, such as claims that the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise is a prelude to a nuclear attack, and the maneuvers will negatively affect efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
The 11-day drill is scheduled to end on Thursday.
The annual exercise is routinely branded by North Korea as a prelude to a nuclear invasion. This year's exercise prompted the isolated country to put its 1.2 million troops on alert and suspend dialogue with the outside world.
The drill is a "culmination of nuclear threats and invasive nuclear warfare that completely denies the process toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the memorandum said.
North Korea bolted from six-party talks on its nuclear programs in April last year following U.N. condemnation of its long-range rocket launch, but it has recently signaled willingness to rejoin them.
South Korean Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said Wednesday's statement marks the first time the North has released a memorandum concerning the exercise. The last memorandum -- a form of statement that she said officially lays out a position on an important topic -- was in May 2007, slamming Japan over a historical issue.
In a related development, the North stepped up pressure on the South to agree to resume suspended cross-border tours, a source of income for the impoverished communist country.
"The South Korean government will be completely responsible for consequences that will follow if it continues to ignore our warnings and refuse to resume the tours," the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, said in an editorial.
The North has already warned it would scrap the tour deal if the South maintains its refusal to resume the tours.
The tours were halted following the death of a South Korean tourist at the Mount Keumgang resort on the North's east coast in 2008. The South demands a joint on-site investigation be agreed on while safety measures are fully implemented before the tours resume.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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