North Korea Says It Needs to Respond to 'Threats from Enemies' Despite Cut in ROK-US Drills, Showing No Sign of Entering Talks

[Financial News] North Korea reacted with hostility despite U.S. President Donald Trump's order to scale back the ROK-US Combined Military Exercise.
On the 19th, North Korea protested the ongoing ROK-US 'Ulchi Freedom Shield' (UFS) exercise, saying that "the Korean Peninsula, where tensions are already high, is once again reaching a 'critical point' for the outbreak of war as the drills rage on for more than 10 days."
In a commentary released that day, the KCNA claimed that "the dangerous expansion and intensification of war drills are creating a more serious threat to the security of our republic, which will inevitably lead to further deterioration of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the Asia-Pacific region."
It also argued that "our exercise of the right to self-defense to thoroughly neutralize the military threats of the enemies will be expressed in even clearer actions" and that "it is necessary to respond to the increasingly evolving hostile acts of the enemy with new and advanced strength."
The KCNA added that "those who infringe upon and threaten the sovereignty and security of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will remain within the targeting range of constant and devastating retaliatory means" and that "all aggression war drills by enemy states will never produce the results their perpetrators seek."
Although President Donald Trump recently signaled a conciliatory gesture toward North Korea by ordering a reduction in the ROK-US Combined Military Exercise, and South Korean and U.S. military authorities are discussing specific ways to scale back the drills to carry out that order, the KCNA made no mention of any of this.
Instead, the KCNA detailed the content, format and scale of UFS in its commentary and criticized it, saying that it "is undergoing a dangerously escalating evolution, different from the last time and every time before."
In particular, regarding the participation of the United Nations Command (UNC) in the exercise, it claimed that this was "a full-scale move to revive its combat function and expand its role" and called it "a development that cannot be overlooked."
The agency argued that "the ground in South Korea, which borders our country, is turning into not only a training field for the U.S.-South Korea military alliance, but also a gathering place for multinational invasion forces aimed at attacking the security sphere of our country and other independent states in the region, as well as a showcase for modern warfare."

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