Seoul - North Korea said Tuesday it was prepared for both talks and war, vowing to beef up its
nuclear force to contain what it called military provocations by the US and South Korea. "Undoubtedly, the joint military drills represent a serious act of provocation, chilling the efforts to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We continue to boost our nuclear deterrent as long as the US threat continues," an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
The military exercises were expected to temporarily put on hold the recent diplomatic efforts to induce North Korea back to the denuclearization talks, which it withdrew from after further
United Nations sanctions were imposed.
"The ongoing military drill is in fact a showcase of how legitimate it is for us to call on the US to sign a peace treaty. That is why we are prepared for both talk and war," the agency quoted the spokesman as saying.
The response the latest in a series of protests against annual 10-day joint exercises that South Korea and the United States launched Monday.
North Korea said it put its troops into combat-ready positions on Monday as the US and South Korea began the exercises, news reports said.
Pyongyang had called the planned drills a rehearsal for an invasion of North Korea, and threatened "powerful counteraction," a military spokesman was quoted by state media on February 25.
Seoul and Washington maintain that the annual manoeuvres scheduled for March 8-18 are exclusively
defence oriented. Around 20,000 South Korean soldiers were involved, South Korea's Defence Ministry said.
The heightened tension came amid increased diplomatic efforts to get North Korea back to the six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear programme. The talks include North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia,
Japan and the United States.
