The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday lashed out at the growing U.S. military presence in South Korea, describing U.S. troops in the South as a "time bomb."
A spokesman for the National Peace Committee of Korea accused the United States of sending a Patriot PAC-3 anti-ballistic missile battery for a military drill from Okinawa to a U.S. Air Force base in the city of Kunsan in South Korea, in the wake of a joint decision by Seoul and Washington to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on the Korean Peninsula.
The drill was aimed at rapidly shipping the missile interceptor from Japan to South Korea should a conflict happen on the peninsula, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
"These are extremely dangerous military provocations as they further escalate tension on the Korean Peninsula and disturb regional peace and security," the spokesman said in a statement carried by the KCNA news agency.
The spokesman said that U.S. troops stationed in South Korea would be the primary target of any DPRK strike, urging South Korea to change its pro-America policy and call for a withdrawl of U.S. forces from the peninsula.
Last week, the DPRK fired off three ballistic missiles, which were believed to be two medium-range Rodong missiles and one short-range Scud, in a show of force against the THAAD deployment in the South.
The missiles launch came six days after Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy the missile interceptor system to Seongju county, some 250 km southeast of Seoul, by the end of next year.
