http://world.globaltimes.cn/asia-pacific/2011-02/628092.html
N.Korea vows all-out attack against new drill
Global Times [08:20 February 28 2011] Comments By Li Ying
North Korea Sunday threatened "unprecedented all-out counteraction" in response to today's joint military drill between South Korean and US troops.
"The army and people of North Korea will return bolstered nuclear deterrent of our own style for the continued nuclear threat ... and our own missile strike for their vicious attempt to eliminate our missiles," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The North will turn the South's capital, Seoul, into a "sea of flames" if South Korea holds the military exercise, KCNA said Sunday in the statement.
A two-day military talk between Pyongyang and Seoul aimed at easing months of high tensions on the Korean Peninsula collapsed earlier this month.
About 200,000 South Korean and 12,800 US troops will take part in the Key Resolve drills, which will last until March 10, according to AFP. Foal Eagle, a joint air, ground and naval training exercise, will continue through April 30.
AFP also said the US had planned to deploy its 97,000-ton USRonald Reagan aircraft carrier for the drills.
The joint military drill is aimed at the potential finding and destroying of North Korean weapons of mass destruction, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency.
Lü Chao, director of the North and South Korea Research Center at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that since the exercise doesn't present a substantive threat to Pyongyang, the North won't actually respond with force.
"The North is just using ruthless words as a response to the South's hardline stance," Lü said. "The last thing they want to see is war."
From the South's side, he added, they should also learn that irritating only makes the situation worse.
However, Jeung Young-tae, director of the North Korean Studies Center at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told the Global Times that Key Resolve is just a regular annual exercise that was scheduled before the latest talks between the two Koreas collapsed.
"We will definitely carry on the joint drill in order to curb a sudden attack from Pyongyang," Jeung said.
North Korea Sunday also threatened to fire at South Korean facilities involved in "psychological warfare," unless the South suspends its propaganda campaign.
The South Korean military has been sending propaganda leaflets containing details about recent anti-government movements in the Middle East in balloons to North Korea, mixing them with aid, Yonhap reported.
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