The United States and South Korea kicked off their joint military exercises on Monday in a move that already drew criticism from official Pyongyang.
Also on Monday, North Korea's army put its soldiers and reservist on high alert, hours after the two began their annual military drills that Pyongyang has traditionally slammed as a rehearsal for a possible attack against the Communist country. In light of this, Pyongyang is no longer bound by the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, a North Korea People's Army (NKPA) spokesman said in a statement on Monday. He added that Pyongyang was abandoning efforts towards nuclear disarmament in response to the two's war games and would be free to build up its nuclear forces. Earlier, the NKPA General Staff signaled the army's readiness to use its defensive and offensive potential, including nuclear deterrent, to repulse a potential attack from the US or South Korea.
Some analysts say that the two's war games may exacerbate even further what is already a tense situation pertaining to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The drills come as the US and other regional powers are pushing for the North to rejoin international disarmament talks on ending its atomic weapons program in return for aid. The North quit the six-nation talks in late 2008, drawing a tightening of UN sanctions. It has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and cessation of the US-South Korea muscle-flexing on the Korean Peninsula before it returns to the talks.
Some observers point to a low-key nature of the drills, which Washington says are purely defensive with no US aircraft carriers deployed in the area. South Korean officials, in turn, said that crossings at the heavily fortified border between the North and the South were going ahead smoothly, with access to a jointly-run industrial park in Kaesong remaining open.
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