North Korea has accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions \u201cto the brink of nuclear war\u201d through their joint military drills and promised to respond with \u201coffensive action,\u201d according to North Korean\u00a0state media.
\nA commentary published by North Korean\u00a0state media on Thursday criticised the continuing exercises as \u201ca trigger for driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the point of explosion.\u201d
\nAccording to international media reports, US and South Korean forces have been conducting a series of annual springtime exercises since March, including air and sea drills involving a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as well as B-1B and B-52 bombers, and their first large-scale amphibious landing drills in five years. On Wednesday, B52s were deployed for their first use on the peninsula in a month.
\nPyongyang carried out a record number of weapons tests last year and has been ramping up its military activity in recent weeks. It has unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads, fired its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile \u2013 the Hwasong 17 \u2013 and tested a nuclear-capable underwater drone that is under development. It also fired cruise missiles from a submarine.
\nIn a separate North Korean\u00a0state media article, Han Tae Song, the permanent representative of North Korea\u2019s diplomatic mission in Geneva, strongly condemned an annual resolution adopted this week by the United Nations Human Rights Council on the country\u2019s rights situation.
\nThe resolution, adopted without a vote, included the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea by a year.
\nHan called the resolution an \u201cintolerable act of political provocation and hostility\u201d and \u201cthe most heavily politicised document of fraud.\u201d
\nA landmark 2014 UN report on North Korean human rights concluded that North Korean security chiefs \u2013 and possibly leader Kim Jong Un \u2013 should face justice for overseeing a state-controlled system of Nazi-style atrocities. The US sanctioned Kim in 2016 for human rights abuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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