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US-S Korea wargames slammed
18/03/2007 18:07 - (SA)
Seoul - North Korea said an upcoming joint US-South Korea military exercise was a provocation that proves Washington is only waiting for a chance to invade the Communist country.
"This is an unpardonable military provocation as it indicates that the US seeks an ulterior aim behind the curtain of dialogue," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary late on Saturday.
The joint drills are due to begin on March 25, with hundreds of thousands of South Korean troops and about 29 000 US soldiers based here and abroad taking part, along with a US aircraft carrier backed by cruisers and destroyers.
South Korea and the United States have defended the annual exercise as being purely defensive.
The commentary hit out at the United States for carrying out the exercise while negotiations are under way with Pyongyang as part of the six-nation talks over the secretive North's nuclear programmes.
"The reality goes to prove that the US is only watching for a chance to invade the DPRK (North Korea), refusing to abandon its attempt to stifle the DPRK by force of arms, though it is talking about dialogue.
"Dialogue and war manoeuvres can never go together," it said.
North Korea is "fully prepared to deal merciless crushing blows at the aggressors, not forgetting the US arrogant nature even a moment", it said.
- AFP
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