North Korea blasts largest-ever South Korean artillery drill as provocation

North Korea on Sunday blasted the largest ever artillery drill conducted by South Korea's military as a grave provocation that is endangering regional peace.Uriminzokkiri, North Korea's main Internet-based media and propaganda Web site, said the exercise carried out along the demilitarized zone that separates the two countries on Thursday is an unacceptable challenge to the DPRK and showed that the war monger in Seoul will only respond to merciless force.DPRK is the abbreviation of North Korea's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.Seoul conducted the drill involving 49 artillery battalions and 300 guns as a show of force to mark the first anniversary of a brief artillery engagement with North Korea on Aug. 20, 2015. The exchange of fire was the result of heightened tensions sparked by the land mine attack carried out by the North that gravely injured two South Korean soldiers. Last week's exercise aimed to demonstrate Seoul's determination to firmly counter Pyongyang's military provocations.Uriminzokkiri claimed that the South has not learned its lesson from the brief artillery exchange last year and warned that its latest action will lead to direct consequences.It then laid the blame for last year's exchange of fire on South Korea's doorstep by saying that Seoul colluded with Washington to instigate the spike in tensions.The latest verbal attacks comes after the communist country's main newspaper the Rodong Sinmun slammed the exercise on Friday."In the past, (South Korea) has been crazy about military provocations driven by a war fever to invade North Korea, but the latest shelling exercise which involved so many artillery units lurking along the front-line is unprecedented," the North's ruling-party-published paper said.The media outlet said the act has enraged the North Korean military and people, warning that "any rash military provocation will result in (South Korea) paying a high-price penalty." (Yonhap)