North Korea’s
Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement
on Tuesday strongly condemning South Korean military drills and alleging the
war games are designed to practice invading the North.
“Our military and people will absolutely
not allow these reckless war games aimed at attacking us,” the statement issued by the committee’s
secretariat read. “If they provoke us even ever so
slightly, we shall crush them with no mercy,” the
committee announced, according to the North’s Party-run
newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Wednesday.
Referring to the Hoguk [protect the nation]
Drills taking place in the South, the committee said, “They
aim to further complete preparations by collaborating with their master, the
U.S., for a nuclear war against us.” It added, “The entire nation and international community must look properly at
the combative face of the puppet scoundrels and raise their voices of
condemnation against the invasion plot to halt and destroy it.”
The committee also criticized the South,
saying despite being responsible for the call-off of the second round of
high-level talks it is carrying out the largest scale Hoguk Drills. “What they want is not to open dialogue. It has now become evident
that they want to use dialogue as a cover-up, while they hold on to their ugly
spirit of aggression and war-plotting.”
Also, the committee mentioned warning shots
fired by South Korean troops in the West Sea and along the Military Demarcation
Line [MDL] asserting, the South “carried out numerous
military provocations by firing reckless rounds at our vessels and soldiers
during normal patrol routines.”
While referring to the South’s president Park Geun Hye as the “ruler” over the South, the committee said, she may be attending the APEC
Summit and emphasizing the importance of peace and cooperation in Northeast
Asia, but on the other side is carrying out the military drills. “The Hoguk Drills show us how different the South is when it comes to
their internal intentions and what they pretend to be on the outside,” the committee added.
The Hoguk Drills kicked off on the 10th and
will continue through the 21st. They involve 330,000 troops from all branches
of the military, some 23,000 pieces of mobility equipment, roughly 60 naval
vessels, and multiple aerial operations. These drills mark the largest since
those carried out in 1996 and are known as counter-attack drills in the face of
full-scale war with North Korea.
