(3rd LD) N. Korea uses rare military talks to condemn S. Korea-U.S. drills

(ATTN: CHANGES headline; UPDATES throughout with results of the talks, COMBINES with
earlier items slugged "NK-UNC talks")
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- North Korea voiced its routine criticism Monday
against a planned South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise at the first
high-level talks with the United Nations Command (UNC) in nearly seven years, a
defense source said.
The half-hour meeting at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom ended
without a tangible agreement on reducing border tension, the source added.
"North Korea filed lengthy complaints against the plan to hold the Key Resolve
and Foal Eagle exercise and the situation involving the U.S. military deployment
on the Korean Peninsula," the source said after the general-level talks between
the North and the UNC.
In response, the UNC reaffirmed that the annual drills are a defense-oriented
exercise, unrelated to preparations for any attack.
In this year's drills slated for March 9-20, the U.S. plans to mobilize 26,000
troops and a nuclear-powered carrier to test its ability to quickly deploy forces
should North Korea invade, according to the U.S. Forces Korea.
The U.S.-led UNC, which monitors the 1953 armistice that ended the
three-year-long Korean War, notified the North last month of the schedule. The
UNC is currently commanded by Gen. Walter Sharp, who doubles as chief of the
28,500 U.S. troops stationed here as a legacy of the Korean War.
Monday's talks, attended by two-star generals, came at the request of North Korea
and were aimed at reducing military tension amid the North's reported
preparations for a long-range missile launch and its continued verbal threats
against the conservative South Korean government.
The UNC said earlier in the day that it views the North's proposal as "positive,"
adding the talks can be useful in "building trust and preventing
misunderstanding, as well as introducing transparency regarding the intentions of
both sides."
Pyongyang has accused the multilateral command of "undisguised provocations and
violations by U.S. troops in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line."
In a statement carried during the weekend by the North's state-run Korean Central
News Agency, Pyongyang claimed that U.S. troops recently "approached as close as
20 meters from the Military Demarcation Line in the area under the control of the
North and the South in the western region and took photographs of a post of the
DPRK (North Korea) side."
"The South side should never forget that the Korean People's Army is keeping
itself fully ready for all-out confrontation," it said.
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)