US-South Korea military drills 'a violent violation': North Korea
North Korea has strongly denounced ongoing joint military exercises between South Korea and the US, saying the drills pose an "all-out challenge" to efforts towards peace on the Korean peninsula.
The North's official KCNA news agency warned on Thursday that the nine-day drills were "a violent violation of the joint declarations and statements that North Korea reached with the US and South Korea."
"The ill-boding moves of the South Korean military authorities and the US are a wanton violation of the DPRK-US joint statement and the North-South declarations in which the removal of hostility and tensions were committed to," KCNA said, using the acronym for the North's official name.
On Sunday, the US and South Korea agreed to replace two major annual war games with a shorter exercise which kicked off this week.
There are close to 30,000 US troops stationed in South Korea, and their annual drills with thousands of South Korean soldiers have always infuriated the North
The latest flare-up comes just days after the second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi went haywire because the US leader abruptly abandoned the talks.
The summit with the North Korean leader was cut short after Pyongyang demanded US sanctions be lifted in exchange for denuclearization.
The collapse of the summit also disappointed US-ally South Korea, which has been improving relations with the North since Kim and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in met in January 2018.
Following the stalemate, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said that Pyongyang was rebuilding the Sohae long-range rocket site shut last year as part of confidence-building measures.
Trump and Kim met for the first time in June last year in Singapore, where they agreed to work toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Subsequent diplomacy between the two sides, however, made little progress, mainly because the US refused to lift its crippling sanctions.
The two leaders also signed a vaguely-worded pledge on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
So far, Pyongyang has taken several steps toward the goal by suspending missile and nuclear testing, demolishing at least one nuclear test site, and agreeing to allow international inspectors into a missile engine test facility.
The US, however, has insisted that sanctions on the North must remain in place until it completely and irreversibly dismantles its nuclear program.
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