North Korea Says South Exercises Could Provoke War

North Korea on Saturday denounced military exercises carried out by South Korea in early January as raising tensions that could lead to a war.

It was the latest in a series of recent rhetorical attacks on South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his administration by the communist North, which analysts suspect is trying hard to grab the attention of new U.S. President Barack Obama. [ID:nSEO301081]

"The Lee group's act of escalating the military provocations against the DPRK at a time when the inter-Korean confrontation is festering is as dangerous as adding fuel to the fire," the communist party's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by North Korea's KCNA news agency.

"Pursuing the wild ambition to militarily stifle the DPRK at any cost in league with foreign forces... has rendered the situation on the Korean Peninsula so tense that a war may break out any time," said the paper.

North Korea is formally called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

North Korea has been routinely denouncing military drills by the South as prelude to invasion, saying they spoil the prospects for nuclear disarmament talks.

The commentary came hours after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said the communist nation was committed to removing nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula and wants to co-exist peacefully. [ID:nPEK10481]

Relations between the two Koreas -- still technically at war -- have chilled sharply since conservative Lee took office early last year with a promise to end the free-flow of aid to the North unless it moved to end its nuclear weapons programme.