1 hour ago
By Jack Kim and David Chance
SEOUL
(Reuters) - North Korea demanded that South Korea and the United States
halt annual military drills due in February and March, saying they were a
direct provocation, a statement that suggested a re-run of a sharp
escalation in tension last year.
But in a bizarre twist, it also offered a Lunar New Year truce in hostilities, provocations and mutual criticism.
In 2013, North Korea said it would retaliate against any hostile moves
by striking at the United States, Japan and South Korea, triggering a
military buildup on the Korean peninsula and months of fiery rhetoric.
The reclusive North has regularly denounced annual drills such as "Key
Resolve" and "Ulchi-Freedom-Guardian" staged by South Korea and United
States as a prelude to invasion.
"We sternly warn the U.S. and the South Korean authorities to stop the
dangerous military exercises which may push the situation on the
peninsula and the north-south ties to a catastrophe," the North's KCNA
state news quoted a body in charge of efforts to promote Korean
unification as saying.
Similar bellicose rhetoric from the North set South Korea, the United
States and Japan on edge a year ago. As a result, Washington flew
Stealth bomber missions over South Korea and strengthened its military
presence in the South, where nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are based.
South Korea said the
drills were going ahead as planned and despite the threat, North Korea's
military has showed no sign of unusual activities.
"If North Korea actually commits military aggression at the excuse of
what is a normal exercise we conduct as preparation for emergency, our
military will mercilessly and decisively punish them," Defense Ministry
spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
Later, North Korea appeared more conciliatory.
"We propose formally to the authorities of the South that on the
occasion of the Lunar New Year holiday beginning on January 30, both
sides take substantive steps of halting actions that provoke and
criticize the other," the National Defense Commission, headed by North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said, according to the KCNA news agency.
"We propose substantive steps that halt all military hostile actions
against the other," the commission said, adding they should include the
halt of the annual military drills.
North and South Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 civil conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty.
China, North Korea's only remaining real ally and which has been
alarmed by what it sees as provocations by both sides, called for
restraint.
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