Seoul: South Korea and the United States will begin eight weeks of joint military drills starting March 2, military officials said on Tuesday, an annual exercise that typically provokes heightened rhetoric and military threats from North Korea.
North Korea regularly protests the annual exercises, which it says are a rehearsal for war, and has recently stepped up its own air, sea and ground military exercises, amid a period of increased tensions between the rival Koreas.
Tuesday's statement by the joint US-South Korean Combined Forces Command said the North Korean army had been informed of the dates and "non-provocative nature" of the exercises.
On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told his Korean People's Army (KPA) commanders to focus on "combat readiness" this year, according to state media.
"A chance for dialogue or a diplomatic solution has been already lost. What is left is to respond militarily while strengthening deterrence to the maximum," the Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary. The newspaper is published by the powerful Workers' Party of Korea.
It was criticizing the allies for their plan to start the Key Resolve and the Foal Eagle exercises early next month. More than 8,600 American troops will join the eight-week drills, which the allies say are aimed at beefing up their defense capabilities.
The North reiterated that the exercises are clearly part of preparations for aggression.
In a separate commentary, the Rodong Sinmun also claimed that the South is responsible for continued tensions on the peninsula.
"It is none other than the South Korean authorities that are hell-bent on sycophancy toward the U.S. and the moves to escalate the confrontation with the DPRK while blatantly challenging its efforts for the improvement of the inter-Korean ties," it read.
The South's government is trying to shift the responsibility to the North for the failure to hold talks, thus misleading the public opinion, it added.
The Minju Joson, an organ of the Cabinet, took a direct swipe at President Park Geun-hye for her recent remarks that Pyongyang should move toward reform and opening.
It urged the Park administration to halt its "confrontational" policy to curry favor with Washington and take "substantive" measures to improve Seoul-Pyongyang ties.
The newspaper cited a set of economic sanctions, known as the May 24th Measure, the spread of anti-Pyongyang leaflets, and the anti-communist National Security Law.
In 2013, following its third nuclear test, North Korea declared the armistice agreement which ended the 1950-53 war as "invalid" in response to the exercises.
The US responded with long-range nuclear-capable B-2 bomber flights over the Korean peninsular in a show of force it said was designed to show US ability to "conduct long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will".
Overtures for dialogue by both Koreas in recent months have stalled, with Pyongyang describing inter-Korean relations as "inching close to a catastrophe," in a Tuesday editorial in the ruling Workers' Party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun.
The annual U.S.-South Korean drills are divided into two phases: 'Key Resolve', which runs from March 2 to 13, and 'Foal Eagle', which runs from March 2 to April 24.
'Key Resolve' is a computer simulated command exercise; 'Foal Eagle' includes actual "ground, air, naval, and special operations," field exercises, the statement said.
