Pyongyang Denounces Seoul-Washington Military Exercise

North Korea on Thursday blasted an upcoming military drill by South Korea and the United States, claiming it is a step aimed at preparing for an invasion of the communist country.

The Key Resolve drill, scheduled to be held March 2-7 in South Korea, replaces the annual Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration joint exercise. It will be the first joint exercise to test Seoul's war-waging capabilities under a scenario in which South Korea has retaken operational control of its troops from the U.S.

"The joint drill has only changed its name, and it remains an invasive drill aimed at invasion (of North Korea) as it has from the beginning," said the North's Korean Central TV Station, monitored in Seoul.

"Nothing can cover up the invasive nature (of the exercise)," the station added.

South Korea handed over the operational control (OPCON) of its military to the U.S.-led United Nations Command shortly after the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul regained the peacetime OPCON in 1994. The sides agreed in 2006 that Seoul will regain the wartime command by April 2012.

The Combined Forces Command said last week it informed the North Korean army through the United Nations Command that the upcoming exercise is "a defensive military readiness exercise, and that it is not meant to be provocative in any way."

Pyongyang regularly criticizes joint exercises by South Korean and U.S. troops here, claiming they are aimed at preparing for an invasion of the North.

Some 28,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the Korean War and a deterrent to possible threats from the communist North. The divided Koreas technically remain at war as the three-year conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.