North Korea on Thursday denounced planned U.S.-South Korean military drills as a grave danger to the region and criticised new U.S. sanctions as "hostile", urging Washington to focus instead on restarting nuclear weapons talks, according to Reuters. The comments by a North Korean diplomat in Hanoi at Asia's largest security forum came a day after the United States announced expanded sanctions against the North and two days after Seoul and Washington unveiled plans for joint military exercises. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Hanoi on Thursday expected to seek regional support for Seoul, which has sought repercussions for the torpedoing of a South Korean naval vessel that has raised tensions on the divided Korean peninsula. The large-scale U.S.-South Korean naval drills scheduled to begin on July 25 are the first overt military response to what Seoul says was a North Korean attack in March that sunk the corvette Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors. "This move is not only a grave threat to peace and stability of the Korean peninsula but also to the region," Ri Tong-il, a member of North Korea's delegation, said of the military drills. "It also violates the spirit of the U.N. Security Council president's statement," he added, referring to a U.N. statement that condemned the sinking of the Cheonan but did not cite North Korea by name in deference to China, the North only major ally. China has harshly criticised the military drills and launched its own naval exercises off its eastern coast. SIX-WAY NUCLEAR TALKS On a visit to Seoul on Wednesday, Clinton insisted additional sanctions were aimed Pyongyang's leaders and not at ordinary North Koreans, who make up one of the world's poorest societies and whose stumbling economy is already cut off from the world. "The sanctions will deepen the hostile policy against the North," Ri said, urging the United States to instead propose conditions to resume stalled six-party talks over the North's nuclear weapons programme and other issues. Seoul and Washington have said the North must admit responsibility for the attack on the ship, which a South Korean-led investigation concluded was sunk by a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine, before talks can resume. Japan backed that position at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi, said Japanese deputy press secretary Hidenobu Sobashima. "It may be difficult to resume six-party talks as if nothing has happened in the wake of the incident," he told reporters. North Korea has denied any role in sinking the ship, and made that point in bilateral talks on Thursday with Southeast Asian foreign ministers, said diplomats who attended the meetings. "North Korea explained their side of the story that they were not responsible for the incident. They also expressed a willingness to return to six-party talks," said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi. "They are reaching out." The six-party international talks are aimed at shutting down the North's nuclear weapons programme in return for generous aid. After North Korea last year conducted its second nuclear test, Washington and others pushed for Pyongyang to return to the negotiations, which include North and South Korea and regional powers China, Japan, the United States and Russia. "If (the United States and South Korea) are really interested in the denuclearisation of the peninsula, they should take the lead in helping establish the settings (for restarting talks) before they resume military drills," Ri said. Analysts say Washington and Seoul are reluctant to head back into the talks, which the ostracised North has previously used to extract benefits from the international community while still pressing ahead with efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal. But they may have little choice with Washington nervous about North Korea's potential to export atomic weapons. South Korea's leaders, also, do not want to be seen as completely turning their back on their neighbour.
