Seoul: North Korea may conduct military drill

North Korea may conduct a large-scale nationwide military drill in early March, Seoul’s defense ministry official said Thursday. Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters that cold weather military exercises carried out over the winter months involved unusual levels of participation by the artillery, special forces units and ground attack drills by the country’s air force. He said based on observation of exercises carried out so far, the defense ministry believes it is likely that Pyongyang may launch a nationwide drill involving the land, sea and air arms of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) as well as the North’s large special forces units. This drill may raise fresh military provocations following the inauguration of a new government in South Korea, a Yonahp report said today. The spokesman said South Korea’s military has moved to increase surveillance of the North and is on guard against any sudden attacks the communist country may launch. “In the past, the North tended to provoke the South whenever there was a change in political power,” Kim claimed. He also pointed out that the string of visits by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to military bases where he checked the readiness of soldiers need to be assessed carefully. South Korean military experts said that such visits may be nothing more than saber-rattling tactics commonly used by Pyongyang to intimidate its enemies, although it may mean they are preparing to provoke the South with another sudden attack. In February 1998, at the start of late President Kim Dae-jung’s term in office, the North launched its Taepodong 1 missile followed a year later by the Yeonpyeong sea battle. At the start of former President Lee Myung-bak’s five-year presidency in 2008, the North again launched a long-range missile, followed by a nuclear test in 2009 and the Daecheong sea battle, Yonhap said. Observers said if Pyongyang carries out a large scale military exercise next month, it may be in response to the joint South Korea-US Key Resolve and Foal Eagle manoeuvers that kick off on Friday and run through April 30. Seoul and Washington insist that the exercises are defensive in nature, but Pyongyang has claimed they are aimed at attacking the North.