(US News & World Report)
Paul D. Shinkman March 7, 2019, at 12:33 p.m.
North Korea on Thursday blasted new, smaller-scale U.S.-South Korea military exercises as an "open challenge" to the aspiration of Pyongyang, seemingly rejecting what had been a key compromise President Donald Trump made following a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month.
The fiery rhetoric followed numerous reports this week that North Korea has begun new activity to bolster its nuclear weapons program, despite White House assurances following the high profile February meeting in Vietnam that Kim was committed to denuclearization.
"The ill-boding moves of the south Korean military authorities and the U.S. are a wanton violation of the DPRK-U.S. joint statement and the north-south declarations in which the removal of hostility and tensions were committed to," North Korean state news service KCNA wrote, using its preferred acronym for itself. The statement described the new downsized exercises as "an open challenge to the aspiration and desire of all Koreans and the international community for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
The statement represents a troubling escalation following South Korean media reports of new activity at a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile plant in recent days, the same site Trump has said he would be disappointed to see rebuilt. Senior officials at the South Korean National Intelligence Service reported the movement of cargo vehicles around the Sanumdong factory in Pyongyang, according to the JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers.
Comments