DHAKA: North Korea’s top military body on Thursday piled fresh pressure on South Korea to cancel planned military drills with the United States, even as Seoul insisted the exercises would go ahead.

In a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency, the National Defence Commission (NDC) called on the South to drop its ‘two-faced behaviour’ and ‘stop the reckless act of bringing in dangerous US nuclear striking forces’, reports The Straits Times.

The language of the statement was less threatening than that used Wednesday by the North Korean state body in charge of inter-Korean affairs which had warned of an ‘unimaginable holocaust’ if the joint drills went ahead.

The South Korea-US drills are conducted every year and are routinely condemned by the North as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

BDST: 1907 HRS, JAN 16, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor