North Korea's military said yesterday that war games by South Korea and US were a prelude to a US military attack and a tactic to compel it to accept US terms in six-party talks on its nuclear program.
The North's comments were the first since the six-country talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions went into a three-week recess last Sunday.
"Its brigandish aim is to wind up its preparations for preemptive attack on the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] and drive the situation on the peninsula to an extreme pitch of tension," the North's official KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed spokesman of the North Korean army as saying, referring to the drills.
South Korean officials say the exercises are largely computer-stimulated drills to test US and South Korean readiness for military emergencies on the Korean Peninsula. They begin later this month and will not involve any mobilization of forces.
The US military says the exercise, named Ulchi Focus Lens, is largely a computer-simulated war game.
The drills are also designed to "force the DPRK to accept the unjust demands raised by the US at the six-party talks," the North Korean army spokesman was quoted as saying.
The North insisted at the six-party talks on retaining the right to operate a civilian nuclear program. Washington wants Pyong-yang to forswear all nuclear programmes in return for energy aid and security guarantees.
"The US side's arrogant action only bars the KPA [Korean People's Army] from expecting anything from the dialogue with the US and reinforces its correct judgment that it is the only way of defending the country and its sovereignty and system to build up deterrence for self-defence," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
The North also said yesterday that high-level military talks cannot resume because of the military exercises, a day after military officers from the two sides failed to agree on a date for the talks.
The last high-level military talks between the two Koreas were held in June 2004. But negotiations have been on hold over mass defections of North Koreans to the South. Official meetings between the two Koreas resumed in May.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image