DPRK says ready for both dialogue, confrontation

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PYONGYANG, Oct. 9 -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) condemned the U.S. Wednesday for a trilateral naval drill it said focused on military provocation rather than dialogue, the official KCNA news agency reported.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Washington was escalating tensions on the peninsula with the planned U.S.-Japan-South Korea drills involving an American aircraft carrier and a joint strategy against nuclear weapons.

The trilateral exercises, which Seoul and Washington claimed would enhance capabilities for search and rescue of private ships, were originally scheduled to be staged for three days from Tuesday, but was delayed for at least two days due to bad weather.

"The United States has refused our legitimate demand to hold talks and negotiations without preconditions to secure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, only focusing on military provocations," said the spokesman, adding Pyongyang was well prepared for both dialogue and confrontation.

The country's military spokesman said Tuesday all Korean People's Army troops were "highly alert to promptly foil provocations" of the joint military maneuvers. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the DPRK's National Defense Commission (NDC) warned Tuesday that Seoul should "seriously reflect on what they did and rectify it before groundlessly blaming someone."

The NDC on Friday denounced South Korean President "Park Geun-hye and her cohorts" for seeking ruthlessly to dismantle Pyongyang's nuclear program and subverting its regime under the pretext of causing changes in the DPRK, warning it would be equal to "digging its own grave."

South Korea's intelligence agency confirmed Tuesday the DPRK had restarted a 5-megawatt reactor in the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

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