News / Interviews

North Korea missile test response to US war games: Activist

Wednesday, 08 March 2017 4:15 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 08 March 2017 5:54 PM ]

This undated picture released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on March 7, 2017 shows the launch of four ballistic missiles by the Korean People's Army (KPA) during a military drill at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by AFP)

Military exercises by the United States and South Korea rehearsing the invasion of North Korea are what provoke Pyongyang to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, says Ryan Dawson, a human rights activist from Osaka, Japan.

“The North Koreans have shot ballistic missiles in response to the war games exercise Foal Eagle by the United States and South Korea,” Dawson told Press TV on Wednesday.

“This is a cyclical event. This has happened before every time the US and South Korea spend tens of millions of dollars at mock invasions of North Korea and then when North Korea reacts, the news likes to start story in the middle and act like North Korea has been belligerent without pointing out the exercises conducted by the United States and South Koreans,” he argued.

Washington and Seoul launched large-scale annual drills on the Korean Peninsula at the beginning of March, while Pyongyang warned that the exercises are driving the peninsula and Northeast Asia toward nuclear disaster.

US soldiers gather during their drill at a military training field in the border city of Paju, South Korea, on March 7, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The activist also asked how the United States would react if other countries deployed missile systems near its borders, noting that “hypocrisy is pretty thick.”

He also criticized the US-imposed sanctions on North Korea, saying, “Sanctions [mean] war. When you are not talking with people, when you are not trading with people, there is nothing to lose and these weapons in the streets and lobbies are making so much money of these war game exercises and belligerency.”

Dawson called on the United States and its allies to change their attitude toward North Korea and stop carrying out war games, because “what we need to do is to have dialog and sit down and talk about trade in agriculture not in weapons.”

He also pointed to China's efforts aimed at deescalation in the region, saying Beijing has urged the United States and South Korea “to stop these mock war game exercises” and simultaneously asked North Korea to stop missile tests in order to “deescalate” tensions.

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