NKorea denounces US-SKorea military exercise, vows to increase war deterrent

SEOUL (AP) - North Korea denounced a planned joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States, describing it Friday as an unacceptable provocation and preparation for an invasion of the communist nation.

The North routinely criticizes the annual Ulchi Focus Lens drill as a rehearsal for a northward invasion, although U.S. and South Korean officials have repeatedly said the exercise _ staged since 1975 _ is purely defensive. This year's drill is set for Aug. 20-31.

The drill is aimed at "stifling (the North) with force and is an unacceptable provocation that drives the Korean peninsula situation to the phase of an extreme confrontation," the North's Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The exercise is set to involve about 10,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and abroad, and a "small number" of U.S. personnel will travel to South Korea for the drill, according to the U.S. military. The North has been notified of the exercise plan by U.S. forces.

The North claimed the exercise "poses obstacles to efforts to resolve" the standoff over the country's nuclear programs and hinders reconciliation between the two Koreas.

"It remains our position that we respond with good faith to good faith and with merciless punishment to provocation," it said. "Our army and the people will further solidify our war deterrent."

The North's reference to its "deterrent" usually refers to its nuclear programs.

Pyongyang shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor last month in exchange for energy aid under a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. The February deal also calls for Pyongyang to disclose all its nuclear programs and disable facilities.

About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, leaving the two Koreas still technically at war.