N. Korea blasts Foal Eagle exercises as flagrant provocation

  North Korea on Saturday blasted the ongoing joint Foal Eagle military drills as a flagrant provocation and made clear it viewed them as a direct threat to its security.

   The Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said the annual South Korea-U.S. field training exercise that kicked off this month and run through the end of April, involve hundreds of thousands of troops and nuclear weapons.

   "The U.S. and warmongers (in the South) are engaged in a war drill on our doorstep," the committee stressed. It pointed out that there is no precedence for such a long-drawn maneuver taking place anywhere else in the world in the face of opposition.

   The organization, charged with holding dialogue and exchanges between the two countries, said that Pyongyang has already made clear that if a new war breaks out it will respond with its nuclear assets and will not shy away from preemptive strikes.

   "It is now past time that we engaged in talk," it argued, saying the North will respond to force with force, and use nuclear weapons if it is attacked by nuclear weapons.

   Related to the North's hardline stance, the Minju Josun, the North Korean Cabinet's official newspaper, said relations with Washington have deteriorated to the point that there is no longer any need to hold talks.

   "No logical discussion is possible and there is really no need to hold bilateral meetings," the media outlet said. It pointed out that recently many high ranking U.S. officials have said they will never accept a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons and added there will be no compensation if the nuclear standoff is not resolved.

   The paper claimed that it was the United States that pushed the North to arm itself with nuclear weapons in the first place, so its arguments are self-contradictory and make no sense. It warned that the will of the people is to end the confrontation with the U.S. once and for all, which has been going on for several decades.

   "This is the view and will of the people," it said, making clear that the country is not interested in any form of political bartering and will maintain its nuclear deterrence.

   The remarks, meanwhile, come as the communist country has ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula by detonating its third nuclear device on Feb. 12. It has unilaterally nullified the

Armistice Agreement that halted the Korean War (1950-53) and made clear it will no longer respect non-aggression pacts signed in the past between the two Koreas.  

(Yonhap News)


<관련 한글 기사>

北, 독수리훈련에도 반발…"극악한 도발"

지난 21일 종료된 '키 리졸브' 한미 합동군사훈련을 맹비난해온 북한이 한미 연합 실기동훈련(FTX)인 독수리 연습에 대해서도  "우리에 대한 극악한 도발이고 우리의 경고에 대한 정면도전"이라고 반발했다.

    북한 대남기구인 조국평화통일위원회(조평통)은 23일 서기국 보도에서 "이 세상에 미국과 괴뢰호전광들처럼 수십만의 대병력과 핵탄과 실탄을 장비한 최신  핵전쟁수단을 총동원해 남의 문전에서 무려 두 달 동안이나 상대방을 반대하는 전쟁연습을 벌리는 그러한 실례는 어디에서도 찾아볼 수 없다"며 이같이 주장했다.

    조평통은 "우리는 이미 미국과 괴뢰패당이 일으키는 새 전쟁 도발에 전면전쟁으로 대답해나설 것이며 선제타격도 불사할 것이라는 것을 명백히 했다"며 "말로 하던 때는 이미 지나갔다. 우리는 힘에는 힘으로, 정밀 타격에는 초정밀 타격으로,  핵에는 핵으로 맞받아나갈 것"이라고 위협했다.

    이달 1일 시작된 독수리 연습은 내달 30일까지 이어진다.