North Korea on Thursday denounced planned US-South Korean military drills as a grave danger to the region and criticised new US sanctions as "hostile", urging Washington to focus instead on restarting nuclear weapons talks. The comments by a North Korean diplomat in Hanoi at Asia's largest security forum came a day after the United States announced expanded sanctions against the North and two days after Seoul and Washington unveiled plans for joint military exercises.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Hanoi on Thursday expected to seek regional support for Seoul, which has sought repercussions for the torpedoing of a South Korean naval vessel that has raised tensions on the divided Korean peninsula.
The large-scale US-South Korean naval drills scheduled to begin on July 25 are the first overt military response to what Seoul says was a North Korean attack in March that sunk the corvette Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors. "This move is not only a grave threat to peace and stability of the Korean peninsula but also to the region," Ri Tong-il, a member of North Korea's delegation, said of the military drills.
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