N. Korea vows to scrap ceasefire if South, US continue military drill

rt news

South Korea and US Marines take aim as they ski down a hill during a joint winter drill in Pyeongchang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul, on February 7, 2013. (AFP Photo / Jung Yeon-Je)

Conflict, North Korea, South Korea, USA

North Korea has threatened to scrap the armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War if the South and US continue with an ongoing military drill.
"We will completely nullify the Korean armistice," the North's KCNA news agency said, quoting the Korean People's Army (KPA) Supreme Command spokesman.
Pyongyang warned it will cancel the Korean War ceasefire agreement on March 11 if the US and its "puppet South Korea" do not halt their joint drills.
"We will be suspending the activities of the KPA representative office at Panmunjom (truce village) that had been tentatively operated by our army as the negotiating body to establish a peace regime on the Korean peninsula," KCNA quoted the spokesman as saying.
The announcement from Pyongyang comes as South Korean and US troops launched their annual joint military drills on Friday. Some 10,000 US troops and 200,000 South Korean soldiers are currently taking part in the exercises.
North Korea had previously warned the US commander in South Korea of “miserable destruction” if the US military went ahead with the two-month-long exercise, Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday.
The North and South are still technically at war after the civil conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Pyongyang's threat follows reports that Washington and Beijing have drafted a series of sanctions to be circulated among UN Security Council members in the wake of North Korea’s third nuclear test last month. Details of the tentative sanctions remained murky, with UN diplomats telling Reuters on condition of anonymity they hoped to receive the draft resolution at Tuesday’s Security Council session.
The United States and other members of the international community have viewed North Korea’s third nuclear test as putting the isolated state one step closer towards developing a nuclear weapon which can target America.
North Korea has framed its nuclear weapon's program as a counter to US aggression which dates back to the 1950s war.
In February, a source close to the highest levels of government in Pyongyang told Reuters that “a fourth and fifth nuclear test and a rocket launch could be conducted soon, possibly this year." The source continued that the fourth test would be much larger than the third, with an equivalent of 10 kilotons of TNT.