North Korea slams U.S.-Japan joint drill

SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean committee on Thursday blasted the United States and Japan for conducting a joint missile drill, branding it as a "ferocious gangster-like act."

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Navy will conduct the annual exercise for one week starting on Friday. The drill includes the Japanese and U.S. air forces, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps.

"Branding this as a ferocious gangster-like act aimed to tarnish the hard-won atmosphere for the improvement of the north-south ties and for peace on the Korean peninsula, and as a dangerous military provocation to ignite the train of a war," the Korean National Peace Committee said in a statement.

The statement was announced through North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in an English-language report monitored in Seoul.

"The recent drill assumes greater bellicosity and danger as its scope has been expanded as never before with the involvement of the Japan Air SDF and U.S. marines and air force units," the committee said.
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