By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: February 7, 2008 Filed at 7:01 a.m. ET
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea criticized joint military exercises planned by the United States and South Korea next month, saying the annual maneuvers are preparations for an invasion of the communist country.
The six-day exercises -- dubbed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- are to begin March 2 with 27,000 American troops, along with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and an undisclosed number of South Korean soldiers.
The joint exercises are ''nothing but saber rattling to invade the North,'' the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.
South Korea and the U.S. have characterized the maneuvers as purely defensive, but North Korea has long claimed the U.S. is planning an invasion and the drills are a rehearsal for an attack.
The exercises -- previously called RSOI and Foal Eagle -- involve a computer-simulated war game with field drills aimed at improving U.S. and South Korean forces' defense capabilities.
KCNA carried a separate statement Thursday from the North's Korean National Peace Committee which denounced the drills as an attempt ''to stifle our republic by force and bring the catastrophe of a nuclear war.''
It demanded that Washington end its ''hostile policy'' toward North Korea and withdraw its troops from South Korea.
The United States has repeatedly said it has no intention of attacking North Korea.
On Wednesday, North Korea accused the U.S. of attempting to permanently station its troops in South Korea.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea in a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.
Relations between the two Koreas warmed after the first summit of their leaders in 2000 and improved further during a second summit last year.
However, the U.S. and North Korea have been in a row since 2002 over the North's nuclear programs.
Under an international accord last year, North Korea pledged to disable its only operating nuclear reactor and declare all of its nuclear facilities by the end of 2007. But the process stalled after North Korea said it provided the U.S. with a list in November, but the U.S. said it was incomplete.
The statement Thursday accused American ''hard-line conservative forces'' of darkening the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the nuclear row.
