‘N. Korea warns of less restraint to S. Korea’s military drills’

TEHRAN - North Korea has slammed South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s comments of retaliation against Pyongyang if provoked, saying that DPRK has limited restraint over Seoul’s military provocation and it will punish the south if it does not stop its drills.

The China Daily quoted North Korea’s official daily, Rodong Sinmun, as saying that the US and South Korea have been staging repeated anti-DPRK drills.

On Monday, Myung-bak had threatened his nation would not shy away from defending itself against the North, even if it meant the possibility of war.

“We have now been awakened to the realization that war can be prevented and peace assured only when such provocations are met with a strong response,” he had said.

Tensions have remained high on the Korean Peninsula since a North Korean artillery barrage of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island last month, which killed four people, including two civilians.

Later the South had held a series of military drills apparently intended to show the North that it was ready to strike back forcefully if provoked again. It is scheduled to hold its latest maritime firing drill from Monday to Friday in waters off the country’s west, south, and east coasts, but no drills are scheduled near the disputed western sea border with the North. (ANI)