North Korea urges UN to demand 'immediate halt' to joint military exercises by US, South
North Korea's Foreign Ministry has called on the United Nations to demand an immediate halt to joint military exercises planned by the United States and South Korea, saying the drills escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"The UN and the international community will have to strongly urge the US and South Korea to immediately halt their provocative remarks and joint military exercises," Kim Son Gyong, North Korea's vice foreign minister for international organizations, said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, on Sunday.
The official said, "It is regrettable that the UN has been consistently silent on the [joint] exercises, which have a clear aggressive nature."
Kim added that drills and rhetoric from the United States and its allies are "irresponsibly raising the level of confrontation" in the region.
The US and South Korea held joint aerial exercises last month. The drills saw South Korea's F-35A, F-15K and US F-16 fighters escorting American B-1B bombers as means of demonstrating the two countries' defense capabilities and readiness posture.
And later this month, the two countries are scheduled to conduct more than 10 days of large-scale military exercises, including amphibious landings. The announcement was made by both American and South Korean officials on Friday.
Washington and Seoul allege that their joint exercises are defensive in nature, but Pyongyang considers them as rehearsals for invasion of its territory.
On Saturday, the North's Foreign Ministry condemned the planned war games, blaming the US for "the collapse of international arms control systems."
"The Korean Peninsula is turning into the world's biggest powder keg and war practice field due to a military expansion scheme led by the United States and its followers," the ministry said.
It called Pyongyang's nuclear weapons a just response to ensure peace and stability on the peninsula.
The statement further condemned South Korea and Japan's military build-ups, saying the two countries are crossing a dangerous line and adding that the escalation "should not be tolerated."
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