ROK-US military drills get different interpretations

Xinhua, March 4, 2011

The latest South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises code-named "Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" beginning Monday has got different interpretations from the north and south parts of the Korean Peninsula and their close neighbor Japan.

DPRK stands ready for self-defense

A Foreign Ministry spokesman for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Tuesday that counter-measures by the Korean People's Army (KPA) for legitimate self-defence was becoming more and more "inevitable." The opportunity of dialogue and the easing of tensions is "disappearing."

This tough stance came after a failed preliminary military talks in early February on holding a high-level military talks to discuss pending military issues on the divided Korean Peninsula.

Resorting to military drills despite Pyongyang's persistent calls for dialogue since January is likely to be taken by the North as a challenge to its goodwill and patience.

The inter-Korean relations had been aggravated last year following the sinking of a South Korean warship Cheonan and shelling of a bordering Yeonpyeong Island, which South Korea blamed on Pyongyang.

DPRK Foreign Minister spokesman said in a statement Tuesday that the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises proved again that their anti-DPRK policy has remained unchanged, the official KCNA news agency reported.

They tried to block the peaceful development of the DPRK, throttle its social system and piece together a triangle military alliance of the United States, Japan and South Korea to establish hegemony in this area, said the spokesman.

The joint military drills were allegedly aimed at the so-called "contingency" on the Korean Peninsula and the elimination of DPRK's nuclear weapons and missile threat. The two countries even threatened with "precision strike" against DPRK's central organs, unveiling the "offensive" and "aggressive" nature of the exercises, said an official DPRK website.

In a statement on Sunday, one day before the drills started, DPRK's military vowed to respond to the "reckless provocation" of the South with "an all-out war at any time" and counter "the nuclear and missile blackmail" with its "own nuclear deterrent" and "missile striking method," the KCNA reported.