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US military exercise 'violates' North Korea's sovereignty: official
 North Korea accused the United States of running a "massive" military exercise off the Korean Peninsula, which Pyongyang's vice foreign minister said was a "serious violation of the principles of sovereignty". But Kim Hyong Jun repeated in Pretoria, where he is on an official visit to South Africa, that North Korea would return to six-party disarmament talks if Washington agreed to drop economic sanctions against the secretive state. "At the moment the US is conducting massive military excercises in the waters off the Korean peninsula... with South Korea and Japan," Kim said after talks with his South African counterpart, Aziz Pahad. "These exercises are a serious violation of the principles of sovereignty, equality, reciprocity and non-interference," Kim said. His comments came amid another flurry Tuesday of shuttle diplomacy to address the crisis in the wake of last week's seven missile launches. Separate talks between North and South Korea, and China and the United States were held, a day after a vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution on possible sanctions against Pyongyang was postponed. The North Korean official defended the missile launches, saying his country "has to defend its rights". "The latest missile launches are part of routine military exercises to increase our capability for self-defence," Kim said. "Our military is involved in these missile launches as part of an exercise to contain aggressive threats from the outside and increase the nation's military capability." Posted by: Fred 2006-07-12 |
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