Obama's unilateral sanctions opposed

A statement issued on Wednesday by the DPRK through the official Korean Central News Agency said the drills amount to "a provocation to the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and an open declaration of a war against it".

Shi Yongming, an Asia-Pacific studies researcher at the China Institute of International Relations, said Washington and Seoul "have paid too much attention to sanctions, and they proposed few offerings for politically settling the nuclear issue".

Zhang Liangui, an expert in Korean studies at the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said Washington and Seoul "are now determined to push Pyongyang to the brink (with all their measures) and finish the whole issue once and for all".

The unilateral sanctions imposed by the US, the ROK and Japan are coordinated with one another, Zhang added.

Kim Hong-kyun, chief ROK envoy for the six-way dialogue to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, will visit China on Friday to meet with Wu Dawei, China's special representative on Korean Peninsula affairs, ROK Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuk told a news briefing.

It will be the first meeting between them since Kim was named in late February as special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs to represent Seoul at the Six-Party Talks.

The talks, which involve the DPRK, China, the ROK, the US, Russia and Japan, have been stalled since 2008.

Xinhua contributed to this story.