DPRK military blames S. Korea for failure of test train runs

A spokesman for the military authority of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday blamed South Korea for the failure of the first cross-border train runs, the official DPRK news agency reported on Sunday.

"The north-south trial operation proved abortive because the establishment of a 'peace mechanism' turned out to be nothing but empty talk full of lies and deception ", said the spokesman for the Korean People's Army (KPA), the Korean Central News Agency reported.

The test operation, which was scheduled for Thursday but was cancelled by the DPRK on Wednesday, would have been the first time trains had crossed the border since the Korean War broke out in June 1951.

"If the south side is truly interested in opening railways and roads to traffic, it should take up, among other things, such basic issues as defusing the military tension and the issue of preventing clashes in the waters of the West Sea at the inter-Korean military talks," said the spokesman.

Two bloody naval clashes have occurred since 1998 along the disputed sea border, resulting in many casualties.

The KPA also cited acts of "provocation" such as the burning of the DPRK' national flags in South Korea.

"The KPA could not allow the peaceful trial train operation to take place under the present situation such as the burning of DPRK flags", said the spokesman.

Source: Xinhua