Tensions rise over US-ROK drill at security meeting

HANOI - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday threatened the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) with a "physical response" to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with Pyongyang rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a ROK warship.

In Vietnam for a Southeast Asian regional security forum, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a DPRK official traded barbs over the sinking (for which the DPRK has been blamed), the upcoming military drills and the imposition of new US sanctions against the DPRK.

Ri Tong-il, spokesman for the DPRK delegation to the talks, repeated Pyongyang's denial of responsibility for the March sinking, which killed 46 ROK sailors, and said the upcoming military drills are a violation of its sovereignty that harkened back to the days of 19th-century "gunboat diplomacy".