[USFK Forums] North Korea warns of invasion by United States [AP]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, March 14, 2006

North Korea warns of invasion by United States

Posted on Mon, Mar. 13, 2006 BY JAE-SOON CHANGAssociated Press

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea accused the United States on Sunday of stepping up preparations to attack and said that justified the communist state's nuclear weapons program.

North Korea's Minju Joson newspaper cited planned drills with South Korea and other U.S. military activity in the Asia-Pacific region as evidence that Washington was preparing to invade.

A day earlier, the North put off Cabinet-level talks with the South to protest the joint military exercises.

The weeklong exercises later this month will involve 20,000 American troops and an undisclosed number of South Korean soldiers. The United States and South Korea characterize them as purely defensive.

''The U.S. strengthening military moves on and around the Korean Peninsula is nothing but a premeditated maneuver to realize its hostile policy aimed at militarily stifling our republic,'' the North Korean newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

``Under the current tense situation, the nuclear deterrent force of our republic effectively contributes to guaranteeing peace and safety of our republic. . . . (We) will make every effort to solidify our self-defense force.''

North Korea claims it has atomic weapons and usually refers to its nuclear arsenal as a ''nuclear deterrent force.'' That claim has not been verified independently.

Meanwhile, a South Korean official said Sunday that North Korea may join an international anti-money laundering organization to prove its commitment to fighting financial crimes after being accused of counterfeiting and other misdeeds by the United States.

North Korean officials expressed their intention to join an unspecified group at a meeting in New York last week on U.S. financial restrictions imposed on Pyongyang.



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