SEOUL: The North Korean military yesterday condemned the United States for an upcoming military drill with South Korea, accusing Washington of using the war games as a prelude to war.
A North Korean army spokesman said the annual military exercises between the two nations were also aimed at forcing the North to accept US terms in six-party talks on its nuclear weapons programme.
"It is not hard to guess what the US side seeks through this war drill," the spokesman said.
"Its brigandish aim is to wind up its preparations for preemptive attack on the DPRK (North Korea) and drive the situation on the peninsula to an extreme pitch of tension in a bid to block the positive process of reconciliation and cooperation between the North and the South and force the DPRK to accept the unjust demands raised by the US at the six-party talks," the spokesman said.
The exercise, scheduled to take place from August 22 to September 2, is one of the three largest US-South Korea joint military exercises.
It usually features computer simulation drills involving an unspecified number of South Korean troops and more than 10,000 US troops.