Asia-Pacific

SKorea dismisses DPRK warning against naval drills

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-04 11:14

SEOUL - South Korea's five-day naval drills set to begin on Thursday are of defensive nature, and finding faults with the drills taking place in South Korean waters can be regarded as a sort of provocation, a military official said Wednesday.

South Korea is poised to stage large-scale naval drills off the west coast of the Korean peninsula starting August 5, a show of force meant to improve Seoul's defense posture and deter provocation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to Rear Adm. Kim Kyung-sik of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

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"The exercises are of defensive nature and will be carried out in South Korean waters. Finding faults with it itself would constitute a kind of provocation," Kim told a press briefing. "We will not tolerate any provocation of the enemy."

The announcement follows the DPRK's warning of a "powerful physical retaliation" against the war game, which will be held near the disputed maritime border off the west coast of the Korean peninsula where Pyongyang allegedly sank a South Korean warship on March 26 with a loss of 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang has denied the charge.

The drills will involve some 20 vessels, 50 aircrafts and 4,500 troops and coast guards, and serve as a warning against Pyongyang' s further provocation, he said. ?

The military exercises follow a massive joint South Korea-U.S. naval and air exercises in waters east of the divided peninsula last month in response to the warship sinking.