North Korea Strongly Condemns ROK-US Joint Exercises Ahead, Calling Them "Acts Driving Nuclear War"

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] North Korea is escalating its criticism of the upcoming South Korea-US joint military exercises scheduled to take place in about a month.

On the 17th, the North Korean external weekly publication Tongil Sinbo, in an editorial titled "Where Are the Black Clouds Coming From," stated, "The warmongering forces in South Korea, at the meeting of all key military commanders, talked about 'constant provocations' by someone, colluding with foreign forces to strengthen wartime readiness and various joint exercises," adding, "This is nothing but reckless behavior aimed at bringing the black clouds of nuclear war to the Korean Peninsula."

The publication pointed out that South Korea has participated multiple times in multinational joint military exercises conducted overseas and continues various military drills, describing it as "war madness hotter than a heatwave" and "suffering from servility to foreign powers and dependence on external forces."

It further criticized, saying, "They are trying to bear the yoke of being 'cannon fodder' in the invasion war and nuclear war waged by foreign forces, the burden of being 'war servant troops,'" and condemned it as "reckless behavior of biting the sword and running, dragged into the foreign powers' fireplay."

This appears to be North Korea's renewed call for the suspension of the exercises, as South Korea and the United States are reportedly set to begin the second half joint command post exercise from the 16th of next month. Earlier, on the 13th, North Korea also issued a commentary titled "Who Is the Cause of the Rising Tensions?" through its external propaganda media Uri Minjok Kkiri, asserting that "war drills and military buildup activities can never coexist with peace."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.