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US-South Korea exercises bring threat from North

North Korea yesterday threatened to bolster its nuclear deterrent in response to US-South Korean war games, striking a discordant note after a week of cultural diplomacy that raised hopes of warmer ties between the US and Pyongyang.

The North will "take necessary countermeasures including those to further bolster up all its deterrent forces," its Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

North Korea, which successfully tested a nuclear bomb in 2006, commonly uses the word "deterrent" to refer to its nuclear weapons program.

While North Korea's military had previously condemned the war games, which began on Sunday and involve tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops, the Foreign Ministry comment represents the highest form of official communication from Pyongyang.

In the statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, the ministry said the military maneuvers demonstrate that Washington "is invariably sticking to its hostile policy to stifle the [North] by force."

North Korea claims the US wants to invade the country, an accusation Washington denies.

The angry reaction followed a week of cultural diplomacy that saw the New York Philharmonic stage an unprecedented concert in Pyongyang -- an event billed as a possible means to better relations between the two sides.

But the US has warned against overestimating the impact of the performance, saying that warmer ties will depend on whether the North keeps its commitments under a nuclear disarmament deal struck last year.

Washington has accused North Korea of not fully disclosing its nuclear programs under the agreement reached with the US and other regional partners.

"Such nuclear threat and blackmail do not work on the [North] but will only put a brake on the process of the denuclearization of the peninsula," North Korea said yesterday, referring to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz participating in the military drill.

The joint military exercises, scheduled to run through Friday, involve computer-simulated war games and field drills and about 27,000 US troops.
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