By KUNA
Tokyo : North Korea on Thursday blasted an upcoming military drill by South Korea and the US, claiming it is a step aimed at preparing for an invasion of the communist country, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Key Resolve drill, scheduled to be held March 2-7 in South Korea, will be the first joint exercise to test its war-waging capabilities under a scenario in which Souch Korea has retaken operational control of its troops from the US.
“The joint drill has only changed its name, and it remains an invasive drill aimed at invasion (of North Korea) as it has from the beginning,” said the North’s state-run Korean Central TV Station, according to Yonhap. “Nothing can cover up the invasive nature (of the exercise),” the station added.
South Korea handed over the operational control of its military to the US-led United Nations Command shortly after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. The two sides agreed in 2006 that Seoul will regain the wartime command by April 2012.
The Combined Forces Command said last week it informed the North Korean army through the United Nations Command that the upcoming exercise is “a defensive military readiness exercise, and that it is not meant to be provocative in any way.” Some 28,000 US troops are currently stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the Korean War and a deterrent to possible threats from the communist North. The divided Koreas technically remain at war as the three-year conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.