North Korean diplomat demands South Korea cancel military exercises with US
(29 Jan 2014) North Korea's ambassador to China repeated on Wednesday a recent demand by his country for South Korea to cancel its upcoming joint military exercises with the United States. Seoul and Washington are set to conduct annual military drills - that they call routine - in the coming weeks, and Pyongyang has denounced the drills as rehearsal for an invasion of the North. There has been worry in Seoul that another outburst from Pyongyang would follow the drills. "We again propose immediately and unconditionally halting all military and hostile acts involving fellow countrymen (South Koreans) in collusion with outsiders (United States), and request that the South Korean authorities take the crucial decision of cancelling Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises which they planned to stage from the end of February under the pretext of annual and defensive drills," said Ji Jae-ryong during a news conference at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing on Wednesday. Ji Jae-ryong's rare news conference at the Embassy was more notable for the forthright response he gave to journalists' questions, than for an opening statement that seemed almost identical to one delivered by the country's United Nations Ambassador a few days earlier. When challenged to state what concrete measures North Korea could take to encourage South Korea to act, Ji said that the reclusive communist state could make no change to its nuclear weapons policy until the US altered its stance on the Korean Peninsula. "As long as the anti-DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) policy by the US continues, we cannot expect any resolution of the nuclear issue," Ji said. However Ji made it clear that the North was not going to take the first step in altering the configuration of the decades-old military stand-off. South Korea has so far rejected the North's offer to take a series of steps to ease tensions, saying Pyongyang must take nuclear disarmament steps first. Ambassador Ji concluded by saying that North Korea was onboard for a resumption of six-party talks aimed at denuclearising the North, but only after he had blamed intransigence from the US for their breakdown. "We already took a seat on the boat for the six-party talks and I hope that the other countries involved come to the boat and take their seats," Ji said. The six-party talks between North and South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia, have been suspended since 2008. Seoul and Washington have demanded that Pyongyang should show sincerity about denuclearisation before they return to the table. The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically in a state of war. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
