N. Korea says it's ready for war in face of S. Korea-U.S. joint drill

(ATTN: REPLACES N. Korean delegate's quotes with official English statement)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday its military is ready for
combat in the face of "war-provoking maneuvers" by South Korea and the United
States, who begin a joint military exercise next week.
The annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drill takes place on March 9-20 amid
mounting tensions surrounding the North's alleged missile activity and threats of
border clashes.
"Our revolutionary armed forces are fully prepared with combat mobilization
posture to sternly strike any provocative maneuvers by the enemies to harm the
dignity and safety of our republic," said the Minju Joson, the newspaper of the
North's Cabinet.
The U.S. plans to mobilize 26,000 troops and a nuclear-powered carrier in this
year's drill to test its ability to quickly deploy forces should North Korea
invade, according to the U.S. Forces Korea.
Seoul and Washington say the exercise is defense-oriented, but Pyongyang views it
as preparation for a preemptive strike.
In a rare military meeting Pyongyang requested with the U.S.-led United Nations
Command on Monday, North Korean officials filed lengthy complaints against the
drill, sources said. The meetings are expected to continue this week.
The Korean Peninsula is a "powder keg of Northeast Asia," the paper said, and the
drill "is a serious military threat to our republic and also an extremely
dangerous fire play aimed at provoking a new war."
In the latest U.N. Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations meeting last
week, North Korea claimed that the U.N. Command in South Korea, which oversees
the ceasefire along the inter-Korean border, was "cooked up" by the U.S. and
should withdraw in order to achieve peace.
"If any peace-keeping operation is decided on in the interests of some countries
and used as a lever for interference in other countries' internal affairs, such
operation may, on the contrary, aggravate any dispute," Yun Yong-il, a North
Korean envoy, said during the annual meeting on Feb. 24.
"The 'U.N. Command' present in South Korea is nothing but the U.S. command and
the 'U.N. forces' there are no more than the GIs," Yun said, calling for
international attention to disband the U.N. Command. His speech was carried by
the North's Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea's representative, Park In-kook, rejected the North Korean claim as
"false allegations" and criticized the North for "meaninglessly" wasting the
committee's time.
Multinational U.N. forces fought on the side of South Korea during the 1950-53
Korean War. The U.N. Command is now led by Gen. Walter Sharp, chief of the U.S.
forces in Korea, and still monitors the ceasefire along the heavily fortified
inter-Korean border. About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed here as a legacy of
the war.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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