North Korea has accused the United States and South Korea of increasing tensions and pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula towards the brink of a nuclear war through their joint military drills.
State media KCNA reported that Choe Ju Hyon, an international security analyst, criticised the military exercises, calling them a “trigger” that could push the situation on the Korean peninsula to a point of explosion. The analyst warned that the drills have turned the peninsula into a “huge powder magazine” that could detonate at any moment.
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According to the article, the situation on the Korean peninsula is being driven towards an irreversible catastrophe and the brink of a nuclear war due to what North Korea calls the “reckless military confrontational hysteria” of the United States and its allies. North Korea has vowed to respond with “offensive action” to the drills, particularly the participation of a US aircraft carrier, which they claim is intended to stoke confrontation.
The US and South Korea have been conducting annual springtime exercises, including air and sea drills involving a US aircraft carrier and B-1B and B-52 bombers, as well as large-scale amphibious landing drills for the first time in five years. North Korea has reacted with anger to the exercises, saying that they are a rehearsal for invasion.
Also Read: North Korea launches missile into sea amid drills between US, South Korea
Recently, North Korea has been increasing its military activity, unveiling new, smaller nuclear warheads, testing what it calls a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, and firing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking anywhere in the US. The country has been accused of human rights abuses, but North Korea has long rejected international criticism, considering it a US-led plot to overthrow its regime.
In a separate KCNA dispatch, Han Tae Song, North Korea’s permanent representative to the diplomatic mission in Geneva, has criticised the annual resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on the country’s rights situation. Han strongly condemned the annual resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on North Korea’s rights situation, describing it as an “intolerable act of political provocation and hostility” and the “most heavily politicised fraudulent document”.
The article concluded by saying that the international community hopes that the “dark clouds” of a nuclear war will be removed from the Korean peninsula as soon as possible.
(With Reuters inputs)
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