North Korean media demands South Korea, US to stop joint military drills, withdraw American troops

U.S. tanks at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, north of Seoul / Yonhap

A North Korean propaganda outlet issued demands Saturday for South Korea and the United States to stop their joint military exercise and for Washington to pull American troops out of the South if Seoul wants peace on the peninsula.

The Tongil Sinbo, a North Korean weekly, renewed the calls in a commentary, denouncing the military drill as "an exercise taking place under the collusion with foreign forces."

"It's an operation aimed at preemptively striking our republic and a preliminary training for the complete execution of a nuclear war," the commentary read.

"It is the sentiment of the South Korean public believing that peace is guaranteed with the cessation of various practices of wars of aggression in the South, and the removal of the hostile policy by withdrawing America's aggression and its armed forces," it said.

The commentary came as the North has ramped up criticism over the allies' annual military exercises and renewed its demand for the withdrawal of the 28,500 U.S. Forces Korea stationed in the South in recent statements by its leadership.

Early this month, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warned that the drills would dampen the conciliatory mood created in the wake of the restoration of communication hotlines, saying that it was "imperative for the U.S. to withdraw its aggression troops and war hardware deployed in South Korea."

Kim Yong-chol, head of the North's United Front Department, vowed to make South Korea and the U.S. "pay dearly" for kicking off their summertime exercises this month.

Pyongyang has long denounced Seoul and Washington's military drills as a rehearsal for an invasion. The allies say the exercises are defensive in nature. (Yonhap)

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