North Korea: Threatening U.S. over joint naval exercises?

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North Korean officials have stopped short of an outright threat against the United States, but the implication is there. North Korea sees US plans to conduct joint naval training exercises with South Korea as an act of aggression. The training was scheduled in July but was postponed to Sunday.

“The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency also issued new warnings about its response to planned joint United States-South Korea naval exercises in the Yellow Sea off North Korea, which will include an American aircraft carrier.

“If the U.S. brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea at last, no one can predict the ensuing consequences,” the report said, using the Korean name for the Yellow Sea. The drills, which are to begin Sunday, have angered both North Korea and its protector, China, stirring intense speculation in the South Korean news media of whether the North will respond violently,” according to The New York Times.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made few public statements on the Korean attacks since violence erupted on Monday. State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters on Friday that Secretary Clinton has condemned North Korea’s behavior by calling it “unacceptable.” No details have been released on the role of the U.S. should the North Korean’s continue on a path of aggression.

China has been viewed by diplomatic channels as the most influential source for peacemaking between North and South Korea. However, if the North Korean’s fire on a U.S. warship during a training exercise, it is unclear exactly how the America will respond.

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US military exercises with South Korea could provoke war

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Military exercises between the United States and South Korea were scheduled for last July, but they were postponed to this weekend. However, the timing of the new drills could not be worse. The artillery exchange on Monday that rocked the tense peace between North and South Korea was ignited by military training on Yeonpyeong Island, about 8 miles from the North Korean shore. Under threats of more attacks from both sides, additional military exercises, especially those including the United States could push the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.

“North Korea’s state-run news agency lashed out at South Korean and American plans to hold a joint training exercise on Sunday in Yellow Sea waters near the island,” according to the New York Times. “The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage war exercises targeted against” the North, the dispatch warned.”

The last war between North and South Korea, (1950 and 1953), was the result of an ally imposed division of the peninsula along the 38^th parallel, following the surrender of Japan in World War II. The Korean War, technically called a police action by the United States, also formed a political line between the ideological values of the East and West during the birth of the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union. The Korea’s have had tense relations ever since.

  

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War games: North Korea blames U.S. for artillery exchange with South Korea

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Within hours of President Obama’s affirmation of support for long-time ally South Korea, the North Korean state media agency issued a statement claiming that the artillery exchange between the Korea's on Monday were sparked by the United States. According to an MSNBC report, the North Korean’s said, “Washington should thoroughly control South Korea to ensure they won't continue adventurous military provocations."

South Korea had been conducting military exercises on Yeonpyeong Island off the coast of North Korea prior to the artillery exchange that killed four, wounded more than a dozen others, and set civilian homes ablaze. However, the North Korean response came several hours after the exercises had ended, prompting claims by South Korea that the attack was premeditated and had little to do with the military training.

“The North has threatened further military action if South Korea continues on what it called a "path of military provocation", the North's official KCNA news agency reported,” according to the BBC. “After holding an emergency cabinet meeting, South Korea announced it would dramatically increase its troop levels and overhaul the way it acts in the face of threats from the North.”

The Obama Administration has been trying to defuse the tension between the Korea’s through diplomatic channels and has publicly suggested that influence from China is a crucial ingredient in successful of diplomacy.

China has been supportive of diplomatic measures to calm the situation, but Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has not send any signs of encouragement on diffusing threats of further escalation, calling the situation "grim." 

Despite international condemnation of the artillery exchange between North and South Korea, tensions are heating up as both nations continue to boast about their military might and shoot escalating threats at each other.

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