DPRK condemns upcoming ROK-US drills

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sunday condemned the upcoming annual joint exercises between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States for pushing the Korean Peninsula into a "touch-and-go" situation.

"It is an unpardonable military provocation and a declaration of an all-out war against the DPRK," the official news agency KCNA quoted a joint statement issued by relevant DPRK departments as saying.

The annual joint drills, code-named Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are slated on August 20-31 and will involve some 56,000 ROK soldiers and 30,000 US soldiers.

"The prevailing situation clearly shows who is the root disturbing the peace and security in the peninsula and who is the source and provocateur of a war," the DPRK statement said.

Kim Jong-un, supreme commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), has ordered that if the enemy dares recklessly preempt firing and even a single shell drops on the DPRK territory, the KPA should lead the battle to a war for national reunification, it said, meaning the military would occupy the whole continent.

Kim, top DPRK leader, inspected a front-line artillery unit on Mu Islet on the southwest front, the KCNA said Saturday.

The DPRK and South Korea exchanged fierce artillery fire near Yonphyong Island in November 2010, killing four ROK people. Both sides accused the other of firing the first shot.