The drills were held to coincide with the one year anniversary of an incident along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in 2015, in which two South Korean soldiers were severely wounded by a mine the ROK says was intentionally placed in the path of the patrol by North Korean forces.
Advertisement
But the study of North Korean military action over the last decade, to be released on Friday, casts doubt on Pyongyang’s assertion.
Yonhap said he had initially sought asylum in the United States, but was turned down, while the Dong-A Ilbo said his disappearance had triggered an extensive manhunt by North Korean agents. Starting from the transition to current leader Kim Jong Un after Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke in late 2008, North Korean military action became more closely linked to the drills.
North Korea had told London about what it said were his crimes and requested that he be handed over, KCNA said.
North Korea recently has expressed anger at a US plan to place an advanced missile defense system in South Korea. It also appears to be aimed at bolstering domestic support for the regime by raising tensions, he said.
However, with this year’s war games being the largest ever, and with a U.S. decision to deploy a B-1 bomber plane in the Pacific for the first time in a decade, North Korea is claiming that the US’s intentions are far from promoting regional stability.
The summer exercises, known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are based around computer simulations of combat scenarios.
Defections from North Korea have been in the headlines lately, primarily due to the April defection of a group of waitresses and their manager who were employed at a North Korean restaurant in China. Pyongyang has highlighted this in its claims that the drills are for offensive planning.
“What should not be overlooked is that the puppet forces opened to public the shelling drill and are claiming that it demonstrated their “will to cope with” the “mine explosion” and “shelling provocation” in August previous year”, the KCNA article read.
On Thursday, an army official of South Korea said that there’s a total of 300 artillery systems placed by the military units along the border as the army starts firing shells in different directions.
Advertisement
“Policy makers should focus on a different variable when they think about the potential for North Korean provocations during exercises”, Mr. Cha said.
