Through its official KCNA agency, North Korea blasted Tuesday, August 6, the joint military maneuvers led by the United States and South Korea since Monday. Seoul reported at the same time that two new missiles had been fired from the north.

"Despite our repeated warnings, the US and South Korean authorities have finally started joint military maneuvers targeting the DPRK," a North Korean spokesman told KCNA, using the acronym for the official name of the DPRK. country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The launch of these exercises "is an undisguised denial and flagrant violation" of several agreements reached between Pyongyang and Washington, the agency said.

All the joint exercises between Seoul and Washington are "aggressive warrior exercises simulating a surprise and preemptive attack by the DPRK," the spokesman added. "We are therefore forced to develop, test and deploy the powerful physical assets essential to national defense," he said. "The US and South Korean authorities will not be able to counter them even if they are given ten months to do so."

The North Korean spokesman quoted by KCNA on Tuesday also accused the United States of "deploying a large amount of the latest offensive military equipment" in South Korea.

Pyongyang could look for "a new path"

"All these facts show that the authorities of the United States and South Korea have no political will at all to implement the joint communiques by which they committed themselves to improving the relations between the United States and the United States and the United States. inter-Korean relations, and that they persist in their position to consider us as an enemy, "said the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pyongyang, for one, continues to want to "solve the problems through dialogue", but it becomes more difficult, he warned. "The prevailing situation significantly dampens our desire to implement the DPRK / US agreements and inter-Korean agreements, which also affects prospects for a future dialogue," the North Korean spokesman warned.

Pyongyang may have to look for "a new path," he warned, but if the United States and South Korea continue to ignore North Korean warnings, "we will make them pay a high price" .

Projectiles travel 450 km in flight

The statement came as Pyongyang fired two "missiles suspected of being short-range ballistic missiles" in South Hwanghae Province on its west coast, the Joint Staff said in a statement. (JCS) South Korean. The missiles have traveled about 450 km in flight and reach an altitude of 37 km, according to the same source. According to the US and South Korean intelligence services, this would be similar to Pyongyang's short-range ballistic missile tests at the end of July.

US President Donald Trump downplayed the importance of recent shootings last week, stressing that they were short-range and "very standard" missiles, and said they were willing to continue the dialogue with North Korea.

The July 25 shootings were the first missile tests since the impromptu meeting in June between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in the demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula. The US president and the North Korean leader agreed to resume talks on the North Korean nuclear program. However, this commitment has not yet materialized.

With AFP and Reuters