"North Korea should not repeat claims inconducive to the south-north dialogue and rapidly come to the dialogue table for actual progress in inter-Korean relations," South Korea's Ministry of Unification said in a brief statement after the North’s National Defense Commission issued a statement condemning the South.
The statement urged Seoul to clarify its position on South Korean civic groups floating anti-North Korean leaflets across the border and the annual joint military drills with the United States.
The commission slammed South Korean President Park Geun-hye for her comments on unification with the North, which it said showed skepticism about the South’s will to improve inter-Korean relations.
North Korea also demanded the stop of the joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, but Seoul has said those are annually-held drills of "defensive nature."
"As long as the (South) Korea-U.S. alliance structure exists, military exercises should persist," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing, saying that the alliance and the military forces cannot be maintained without drills.
By Ruchi Singh
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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