The noise from the DPRK continues. On March 1, it
renewed threats of a “physical response” to ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises. “It’s becoming inevitable for our military to show a physical response in self-defense,” the official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying.
“Our military and people cannot suppress a flush of anger at the U.S., which has staged a massive war game against the North in a coercive manner. The U.S. should take all responsibility for the consequences of its military provocation,” he said.
In an editorial, the official Rodong Sinmun daily said, “Alongside the U.S., the South Korean warmongers are staging the provocative joint military exercises on the assumption of an invasion of the North. Chances of dialogue and peace are disappearing from the Korean Peninsula, but the danger of war is increasing.”
“The consequence of a war could be a nuclear catastrophe. To remove the danger of war, warlike forces should stop their game of northward invasion and their armament scheme,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is giving further consideration to resuming the provision of food aid.
The top US diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, told politicians any decision would be taken in close co-ordination with South Korea.
Asked whether food aid could ultimately ease economic pressure on the North, which would effectively allow it to put more resources into its nuclear programmes, Mr Campbell said North Korea had shown historically that it was willing to allow “enormous suffering” among its people. Many starved during the 1990s, he said.
“The choice here is whether these people are allowed to starve. It’s a humanitarian issue, not a political one,” he added.
According to the Voice of Russia in New York City,
[W]e should underline that these [joint US – South Korean military exercises] are routine, they are conducted every year, and from this side, the argumentation of Americans and South Koreans that it’s really peaceful and very routine maneuvers, maybe, have some grounds. But, at the same time, we may understand North Korea, which, in January of this year, put forward a number of peaceful proposals, to South Korea, first of all, and to the United States also, aimed at the reduction of the military activity. And you know that even with the North-South military initiations, talks on the military line took place – unfortunately, they were not successful. But, nevertheless, North Korea tries to demonstrate its peaceful approach after the last year of very hot clashes. And, these very large-scale maneuvers, if they are the response to this peaceful line, of course, they can be accepted by North Korea quite negatively.
Right. The DPRK starves its peasants to supply food and other resources to its elite “leaders” (who get some pretty neat luxuries) and very large military, prepares for another nuclear test, threatens nuclear conflagration, makes hit and run attacks on places held by the South, and begs for food in exchange for “peace” so long as “humanitarian assistance” is provided. And the United States is “considering” resumption of enabling the DPRK.
