DATE=10/26/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=KOREA / U-S MILITARY (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-255474
BYLINE=HYUN SUNG KHANG
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: North Korea is denouncing the United States
for beginning joint military exercises with South
Korea, just one month after it seemed that relations
between Washington and Pyongyang were improving. Hyun-
Sung Khang reports from the South Korean capital,
Seoul.
TEXT: The joint military exercise, called "Foal
Eagle," is an annual event. But what is also an
annual event is the belligerent response from North
Korea.
Pyongyang's foreign ministry spokesman, quoted by the
country's central news agency, called this year's
exercises "a perfidious act" by the United States.
Recalling an agreement reached earlier this month
between North Korea and the United States, Pyongyang's
spokesman says Washington is now "abandoning trust in
its dialogue partner and stabbing him in the back."
The 11-day military exercise involves 500-thousand
South Korean troops and 30-thousand U-S soldiers,
backed by helicopters and tanks. They take place just
outside the capital, Seoul, which is just over 55
kilometers from the border separating the two Koreas.
The exercises include parachute operations and
chemical-warfare simulations and will culminate in a
simulated amphibious assault on the southeast port of
Pohang, which houses a major naval port.
Pyongyang's strident reaction to the military
exercises comes amid improved relations between the
United States and the North. In September, Washington
announced a partial lifting of decade-old economic
sanctions against the Stalinist state. This was in
response to North Korea's decision not to test-fire a
long-range ballistic missile.
In another development Monday, North Korea transferred
to U-S officials the remains of four American soldiers
who died in the Korean War. In the past, Pyongyang
would turn over such remains to the United Nations.
Defense analysts have dismissed Pyongyang's
predictably bitter reaction to the military exercises.
U-S officials say that the joint exercises, which
began in 1961, are an effective deterrent to possible
aggression by North Korea. (Signed)
NEB/HSK/GC/WTW
26-Oct-1999 05:52 AM EDT (26-Oct-1999 0952 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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