DPRK condemns U.S. plan of military exercises

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday lashed out at the joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise scheduled for next spring.

In a commentary published by the leading official newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the DPRK described the planed exercise as "an undisguised act of destroying peace."

"A dialogue and a military drill can never go together," the newspaper said, adding that the U.S. lip-service to dialogue was "no more than a smoke-screen to camouflage its scheme to invade the DPRK."

"The U.S. seeks to take the dialogue as an opportunity to realize its stick policy and build up an international environment needed for it, not as a field of negotiation for the solution of the problem," the report said.

"It is the will and stand of the Korean people to respond to dialogue with dialogue and to an unjust war with a just war," it added.

It was learned that the two annual exercises -- Foal Eagle and RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) -- are to be held in South Koran from March 25 to 31.

South Korean and U.S. forces have conducted Foal Eagle since 1964 and RSOI since 1994, and the two exercises have been held at the same time since 2002.

Source: Xinhua