SEOUL (Dispatches) – North Korea on Saturday blamed the United States for the collapse of international arms control systems and said Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons were a just response to ensure the balance of power in the region.
“The Korean peninsula is turning into the world’s biggest powderkeg and war practice field due to a military expansion scheme led by the United States and its followers,” its foreign ministry said in a commentary carried by state news agency KCNA.
Recent moves by South Korea and Japan showed that a military build-up by the United States and its followers was crossing the danger line and this could not be tolerated, it added.
The comments follow the United States and South Korea’s announcement on Friday that they plan to conduct large-scale military exercises from March 13-23 to strengthen the allies’ combined military posture, including focusing on what they called North Korean aggression.
Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen sharply this year. The U.S. has resumed massive land, naval, and aerial war games with South Korean and Japanese forces in the region as they have vowed to consider all available options to counter what they deem a threat posed by the North.
North Korea considers the U.S. military drills with South Korea and Japan provocative measures that are designed to practice an invasion.
Last month, Pyongyang reiterated its condemnation of joint military drills featuring South Korea, Japan, and the United States.
The drills, it said, had reached an “extreme red line” and threatened to turn the Korean Peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.”
North Korea has also defended its missile tests as a legitimate defense against military threats posed by the U.S.-led coalition.
North Korea is reeling under harsh sanctions by the U.S. and UN Security Council over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, which have not prevented it from developing its military capabilities as a deterrent against hostile West-led moves.
Pyongyang maintains that it will not tolerate persisting U.S.-led war games in the region, underlining that it will continue responding to joint military maneuvers of its adversaries by holding its own drills as well as developing all sorts of weaponry, including long-range missiles.