AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Seoul: North Korea on Saturday denounced the United States for deploying new spy planes in South Korea, accusing it of preparing a nuclear war against the communist state.
“This is another grave military provocation against the DPRK (North Korea) and an extremely dangerous move for a war of aggression against it,” a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said.
“Now that the U.S. is set to ignite a nuclear war for the purpose of disturbing peace and stability on the peninsula by force, the DPRK is compelled to bolster up its deterrent for self-defence,” the spokesman said in a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The US airforce last month deployed three U-2 S Block 20 high-altitude strategic surveillance planes at Osan airbase, 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of Seoul, a US military source said.
But the source said the deployment of the planes, which replaced an older version of the aircraft, have nothing do with current tensions over a possible long-range missile launch by the North.
KCNA said in a separate article issued on Friday that US spy planes flew 220 surveillance sorties over its territory in June alone, focusing on the eastern coastal area in North Korea where its missile launch site is located.
On June 28, an RC-135 surveillance plane based in Okinawa, Japan, flew into air space above its waters east of Musudanri, it said.
Musudanri is where the North has apparently prepared a Taepodong 2 long-range missile, which if fired could reach Alaska or possibly Hawaii, amid a stand-off over its nuclear weapons programme.
