North Korea condemns US military exercise during summit

North Korea demanded that the US military call off war manoeuvres with South Korea planned at the same time as the second-ever summit between the rival Koreas later this month.

During a meeting held at the North’s request at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korean officers read a statement to US soldiers saying the exercises would have a “catastrophic impact” on six-nation negotiations on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.

North Korea also issued a vaguely worded threat, carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency, against the “large-scale war manoeuvres”. Such threats by North Korea are common, and the country regularly criticises the annual Ulchi Focus Lens military exercises, held since 1975.

The drills are to involve about 10,000 US troops stationed in South Korea and abroad, according to the US military.

The US insists the drills are solely defensive and not a threat, and US Army Col John Towers repeated that position during the 35-minute meeting with his North Korean counterpart yesterday, the US military said.

This year’s exercise is scheduled for August 20-31, meaning it would overlap with a meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas on August 28-30 in Pyongyang, the second summit since the peninsula was divided after the Second World War.

Some local media reports have suggested that the drills could be delayed because of the summit, but the South Korean government said it has not considered changing the previously scheduled exercises.

The drills “would not be any big problem” because they do not involve large movements of troops, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-sun said.

The US military also said in a statement that the exercises “will proceed as announced”.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said: “The history of defence co-operation and the alliance between the US and South Korea is long-standing. Exercises of this nature go on all the time and I fully expect they will continue to do so.”

About 28,000 US troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war.