North
Korean leader Kim Jung Un visits the newly commissioned Kalma Foodstuff
Factory in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central
News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang August 15, 2014.
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea said on Saturday it was willing to
suspend nuclear tests if the United States agreed to call off annual
military drills held jointly with South Korea, saying the exercises were
the main reason for tension on the Korean peninsula.
The proposal, which the North’s official KCNA news agency said was
conveyed to Washington on Friday through “a relevant channel”, follows
an often-repeated demand by Pyongyang for an end to the large-scale
defensive drills by the allies.
“The message proposed (that) the U.S. contribute to easing tension on
the Korean peninsula by temporarily suspending joint military exercises
in South Korea and its vicinity this year,” KCNA said in a report.
“(The message) said that in this case the DPRK is ready to take such a
responsive step as temporarily suspending the nuclear test over which
the U.S. is concerned,” KCNA said, using the short form for the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests, the last in February
2013, and is under layers of U.N. sanctions for defying international
warnings not to set off atomic devices in pursuit of a nuclear arsenal,
which Pyongyang calls its “sacred sword”.
It often promises to call off nuclear and missile tests in return for
comparable steps by Washington to ease tensions. It reached such a deal
in February 2012 with the United States for an arms tests moratorium
only to scrap it two months later.
The United States and South Korea have stressed that the annual
drills, which in some years involved U.S. aircraft carriers, are purely
defensive in nature, aimed at testing the allies’ readiness to confront
any North Korean aggression.
Tension peaked on the Korean peninsula in March 2013 when the North
ratcheted up rhetoric during the annual drills, with Pyongyang
threatening war and putting its forces in a state of combat-readiness.
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