S. Korea urges Pyongyang to halt provocations, respond to economic aid offer

SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean government on Tuesday called for North Korea to immediately cease tension-escalating activities, a day after Pyongyang said it conducted "tactical nuclear" drills and vowed to strengthen its nuclear force.

On Monday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said its leader Kim Jong-un inspected an exercise of tactical nuclear operation units to assess the "war deterrent and nuclear counterattack capability" in response to recent joint military trainings by South Korea and the United States.

"The government urges North Korea once again to immediately cease any additional provocations and to respond to our 'audacious initiative' offer," a unification ministry official told reporters, referring to President Yoon Suk-yeol's proposal to help rebuild the North's economy in return for denuclearization steps.

The official also stressed the South's government considers it "very serious" that the North pushed ahead with a nuclear exercise targeting Seoul after it recently adopted a new law that hints at the possibility of preemptive nuclear strikes, saying the North's "illegal" military provocation cannot be justified in any way.

"The government has kept close eyes on North Korea, and has strongly condemned its back-to-back test-firing of short and intermediate ballistic missiles as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and a grave provocation that escalates tensions on the Korean Peninsula, as well as urging the North to immediately cease its (provocative actions) numerous times," he said.

North Korea has ratcheted up tensions on the peninsula with a barrage of provocative missile launches in recent weeks, including an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan last Tuesday.

julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)