N. Korea blasts Seoul over military exercise

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea blasted South Korea on Monday, accusing it
of holding military exercises to prepare for a war against it and warned that it
will "mercilessly" wipe out invaders should war break out.
The communist claimed that "severe winter training" South Korea's military is
holding now is a reaction to its earlier military decision to take an "all-out
confrontation posture" against South Korea's conservative Lee Myung-bak
government.
"This is aimed to deliberately get on the nerves of the army and people of the
DPRK in a bid to invent a pretext for provoking a war of aggression against it,"
Minju Joson, a newspaper published by the North's cabinet, said in a commentary,
using the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The commentary was carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The newspaper claimed the South Korean military exercises are part of Seoul's
plan to "invade the North from the outset of the new year in an effort to find a
way out of its crisis.
The paper did not elaborate but by "crisis," it apparently meant the global
economic downturn Seoul is now trying to fend off.
The accusations come less than 10 days after a spokesman for the General Staff of
the North's Korean People's Army said the country will take an "all-out
confrontation against the South.
"The world will clearly see how the reckless anti-DPRK confrontation moves of the
group going against the mindset of the people desirous of national unity and
cooperation will go bust in face of our army standing in an all-out confrontation
with them," the North's military spokesman in a statement on Jan. 17.
Seoul officials say winter training is only part of its military's regular
exercise scheduled throughout the year.
Pyongyang regularly criticizes Seoul's military exercise as aimed at preparing
for an invasion of the North.
The two Koreas technically remain at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended only
with an armistice treaty, not a peace agreement.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)