U.S.-South Korea Hold Drills That North Calls Rehearsal for War


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U.S., South Korean and Japanese forces hold their second day of naval exercises that have prompted threats of retaliation from North Korea, which denounced the drills as preparation for nuclear war.
U.S. sailors from the USS George Washington Strike Group are leading the exercises to practice search and rescue operations and natural-disaster response. The two-day exercises, which were due to start on Oct. 8 and were delayed because of a typhoon, will finish today, Defense Ministry spokesman Wi Yong Seob said at a briefing in Seoul yesterday.
“The U.S. should know that our army is ready to confidently confront whatever turbulences and perilous provocations with powerful military forces,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Oct. 8, citing an unidentified Army official. In another statement on Oct. 9, KCNA called the drills “nuclear war exercises.”
North and South Korea remain divided along one of the world’s most fortified borders 60 years after the Korean War ended in a stalemate. Tensions on the peninsula have heightened since February, when North Korea tested its third nuclear device and then threatened first strikes against the U.S. and South Korea over United Nations sanctions imposed after the Feb. 12 blast.
Park’s Firmness
Secretary of State John Kerry discussed North Korea with South Korean President Park Geun Hye yesterday at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Brunei. Kerry praised Park for being “firm” with the North and said that he hopes China, the North’s biggest ally, will continue to work for denuclearization.
“China always insists on realizing denuclearization and maintaining peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula, and solving the issue through dialogue and negotiations,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing in Beijing yesterday. “We urge all parties to do things that will help ease tensions and not the opposite.”
The exercises after a South Korea

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