N.Korea demands US-S.Korea war drill be cancelled

SOUTH KOREA: North Korea has called for a scheduled US-South Korean military exercise to be cancelled, accusing the two nations of undermining peace efforts following a six-nation nuclear pact agreed on last month.

A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement late Saturday the week-long drill — due to begin in South Korea on March 25 — should be “immediately” called off.

The spokesman said the exercise would effectively “level a gun at the dialogue partner” following a February 13 Beijing accord with five nations including the US, where the North agreed to shut down its nuclear programmes in return for fuel aid and economic incentives.

The two Koreas also agreed at high-level talks early this month that suspended inter-Korean peace initiatives would resume.

“The war manoeuvres ... make the DPRK (North Korea) sceptical about whether they were sincere when they reached all the agreements with the DPRK and (whether) they are now willing to put them into practice,” the spokesman said.

“This behavior has touched off towering indignation in the DPRK.”

But South Korea and the United States have defended the annual joint military exercise — called RSOI/FE 07 — as being purely defensive.

The exercise, which features anti-commando operations and computer war games, involves tens of thousands of US and South Korean troops based here and abroad, along with a US aircraft carrier backed by cruisers and destroyers.

Under a security pact dating back to the 1950-1953 Korean War, 29,500 US troops are stationed here to help 680,000 South Korean forces face up to North Korea’s 1.1-million-strong military.

The military alliance is to undergo a drastic change after Washington agreed last month to return wartime control over South Korean troops to Seoul in 2012.

The current South Korea-US Combined Forces Command, headed by a US general, will be disbanded under the agreement.

The United States plans to reduce its forces in South Korea to 25,000 by 2008, and is seeking flexibility to deploy them elsewhere in times of need.

Seoul, Sunday, AFP