PYONGYANG, North Korea -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday urged the US military to leave South Korea, pledging to build up the DPRK's nuclear weapons in response to the upcoming joint U.S.-South Korea military drills.
Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea of the DPRK, said in a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that the United States and South Korea desperately started joint military exercises, further accelerating the unstable situation "despite the unanimous denunciation and rejection at home and abroad."
"They are the most vivid expression of the US hostile policy towards the DPRK, designed to stifle our state by force, and an unwelcoming act of self-destruction for which a dear price should be paid as they threaten the safety of our people and further imperil the situation on the Korean peninsula," said Kim, who is also the younger sister of the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un.
The joint US-South Korea military exercises include an "exercise of the staff for crisis control" on Aug. 10-13 and a "combined command exercise" on Aug. 16-26, according to the KCNA.
"The dangerous war exercises pushed ahead by the US and the South Korean side disregardful of our repeated warnings will surely make them face more serious security threat," she warned.
She urged the United States to withdraw its troops from South Korea, saying "for peace to settle on the peninsula, it is imperative for the US to withdraw its aggression troops and war hardware deployed in South Korea."
As long as the US forces stay in South Korea, "the root cause for the periodic aggravation of the situation on the Korean peninsula will never vanish," Kim said.
Preliminary drill
The combined forces of South Korea and the US on Tuesday began the four-day preliminary drill ahead of next week's annual military exercise.
The crisis management staff training (CMST) will last until Friday, led by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to check ways to prevent any emergency crisis situations from developing into a war.
It will be conducted on a smaller scale compared to the first-half drills given the COVID-19 pandemic resurgence.
The preliminary training will be followed by the computer-simulated combined command post training (CCPT) slated for Aug. 16-26. It will be staged in a scaled-down manner.
The military exercise came after South Korea and the DPRK restored their cross-border communication lines, which had been severed for over a year, on July 27, raising expectations for a conciliatory mood between the two Koreas.