Timed to coincide with the US military attack on Iraq, which began on Thursday, the military exercises prove that the United States is implementing its strategy of fighting two regional wars at the same time as part of its efforts to dominate the world, said KCNA, the official news agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

With use of massive numbers of troops and modern military equipment, and the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in a South Korean port, the March 4-April 2 Foal Eagle and the March 19-26 RSOI joint exercises by the United States and South Korea are the largest yet, and are intended to threaten and stifle the DPRK by force, the commentary said.

While staging exercises by air, sea and land, the United States focuses its aerial strategy by mobilizing fighter-bombers and stealth fighters around the Korean Peninsula. This means that it is going to "mount a preemptive attack on nuclear facilities in the DPRK and take it as an opportunity of escalating the war."

As the US strategy of mobilizing international pressure failed to work on the DPRK, it is turning to military means, the commentary pointed out.

The United States has turned down the DPRK's proposal for a non-aggression treaty and staged the largest ever military exercises directed against the DPRK. The exercises drive the military situation on the Korean Peninsula to the "brink of a nuclear war", it said.

The DPRK will increase its self-defense capacity and eliminate any aggressors at a single stroke, the KCNA warned.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2003)