NKorea blasts US-ROK joint exercise

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SEOUL, Aug 3 (AFP): North Korea warned Friday that a major military exercise planned by South Korea and the United States this month could create a hurdle to a nuclear disarmament deal.
The Committee for the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland, a state organisation handling inter-Korean relations, condemned the exercise from August 20-31 as an "intolerable act of provocation."
About 10,000 US troops and an undisclosed number of South Korean soldiers will take part in the Ulchi Focus Lens exercise which involves a major computer-simulated war game.
North Korea routinely denounces such drills as a prelude to an attack against it. The United States insists the exercise is purely defensive.
Seoul and Washington must assume responsibility for "creating an artificial hurdle" to disarmament talks and improved inter-Korean relations, the committee said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.