N Korea blames South's planned drills

S KOREA: North Korea Thursday criticized major land and sea military exercises planned by the South, but stopped short of threatening a retaliatory strike as tension remained high on the peninsula.

The official KCNA news agency chided South Korea for denying the drills had been arranged in relation to the exchanges of artillery shellings between the two sides late last month.

It had initially reported the planned exercises, citing Seoul's media reports. "South Korea is trying to hide the provocative nature toward the North of the war exercises," it said in the comment, issued in the form of a news dispatch rather than in the name of any government organisation.

It was a relatively calm reaction from the North in comparison to its threats of a strike made as recently as last week ahead of Monday's live-firing drill on an island off the west ast of the peninsula.

Analysts say the North is unlikely to undertake any further attack at least in the near term against the South like last month's shelling of Yeonpyeong island or the sinking in March of the Cheonan warship. For now, the North is likely to wait and see if its latest actions, including an offer to readmit international nuclear inspectors, yield results, such as a return to international talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. Seoul, Thursday, Reuters