The United States on Friday insisted that a South Korean live-fire drill posed no threat to the North and warned Pyongyang against "further provocative action."
"It's hard to see how a routine live-fire exercise which has been held in the past poses any kind of threat to North Korea. In fact, it does not," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
"A country has every right to train and exercise its military in its own self-defense," he added.
"North Korea should not use any future legitimate training exercises as a justification to undertake further provocative action."
His remarks came after North Korea's military threatened to strike back with deadly firepower if South Korea goes ahead with the drill on a border island which the communist state shelled last month.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
