North Korea Warns US-South Korea Drills Violate Agreement

Deal between two Koreas intended to suspend exercises

While there has been a lot of progress in recent months on improving ties on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea’s state media warned on Monday that the resumption of military drills between the US and South Korea violated a recent agreement.

On September 19, North and South Korea signed an agreement which was intended to bar either side from taking any action that might be perceived as hostile. This was intended to include military exercises with the US.

The US wasn’t a party to this deal, which was between the Koreas. They have, however, gone out of their way to reduce the number of wargames being conducted in South Korea. As tensions have risen recently, however, the US may be looking to conduct more such exercises.

South Korea downplayed the complaints, not directly denying that they weren’t violating the agreement, but rather insisting that the exercises was very small.and purely defensive.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.