SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea accused the U.S. and South Korea of escalating tensions to the brink of nuclear war through their joint military drills, vowing to respond with “offensive action,” state media KCNA reported on Thursday.
KCNA released a commentary by Choe Ju Hyon, whom it called an international security analyst, criticizing the exercises as “a trigger for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the point of explosion.”
“The reckless military confrontational hysteria of the U.S. and its followers against the DPRK is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to an irreversible catastrophe … to the brink of a nuclear war,” the article said.
U.S. and South Korean forces have been conducting a series of annual springtime exercises since March, including air and sea drills involving a U.S. aircraft carrier and B-1B and B-52 bombers, and their first large-scale amphibious landing drills in five years.
North Korea has reacted furiously to the exercises, calling them a rehearsal for invasion.
North Korean state media photos published on Wednesday showed a South Korean bus, used to transport workers before the North unilaterally shut the park in 2016, running in Pyongyang.
The ministry said it tried to warn against using the factory equipment without approval via a border hotline, but the North refused to take its message.