The North has long protested joint military drills, which it condemns as preparations for invasion, and has set Washington an end-of-year deadline to come up with a new offer in deadlocked negotiations on its weapons programs. “We will adjust our exercise posture either more or less depending on what diplomacy may require,” Esper told reporters on board his plane to Seoul, where he starts an Asian tour Thursday. His comments came after Pyongyang reiterated its demands for the combined exercise to be scrapped. The SAC is the North’s top governing body and it is unusual for it to issue such declarations. But their relationship continues to be heavily affected by Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Source: Manila Times November 14, 2019 16:23 UTC