US brushes off NKorean warning

WASHINGTON (AP) - American officials on Thursday brushed aside North Korea's warning that new U.S. financial sanctions against the communist regime and the staging of military maneuvers off the Korean coast this weekend raises the risk of war.

Verbal skirmishes between the U.S. and North Korea are common, but the latest one comes amid new expressions of concern by U.S. officials that relations with Pyongyang have entered a dangerous period marked by military provocations.

Those concerns prompted the Pentagon to schedule large-scale air and naval exercises with South Korea, to include the USS George Washington, a Nimitz-class nuclear powered carrier, and the first-ever use of the U.S. Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter in South Korea.

The military drills, code-named "Invincible Spirit," are to run Sunday through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, about 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. It is to be the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean exercises to be conducted in the Sea of Japan off Korea's east coast and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores.

The George Washington will participate in the first exercise, in the Sea of Japan, but there are no plans for it to enter the Yellow Sea for subsequent exercises this summer, a senior defense official said Thursday. The official, who is privy to details of planning for the exercises, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

China, a traditional North Korean ally, has voiced concerns that military drills in the Yellow Sea could inflame tensions on the Korean peninsula, especially if it involves the George Washington, which is among the most powerful symbols of America's global military reach.

North Korea warned the U.S. against attempting to punish Pyongyang for the Cheonan sinking at an Asia security meeting in Hanoi attended by top diplomats from both Koreas, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A day earlier, Clinton announced that the U.S. intended to impose new and expanded sanctions against the North in coming weeks, in part to limit its ability to raise money for its nuclear weapons program.

Regarding the naval exercises, North Korean spokesman Ri Tong Il told Yonhap news agency in Hanoi, "Such a move presents a grave threat to the peace and security not only to the Korean peninsula, but to the region."

The spokesman added: "If the U.S. is really interested in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, it should halt the military exercises and sanctions that destroy the mood for dialogue."

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley dismissed the Korean warning.

"North Korea has a habit of trying to deflect, you know, responsibility onto others," Crowley said.

Crowley acknowledged some U.S. officials were concerned that North Korea might use the heightened tensions to make further provocations.

"Are they capable of these kinds of steps? Tragically, the answer is yes," he said. "And the very kind of actions that we've announced in recent days, including military exercises that will be conducted in the near future, are expressly to demonstrate that we will be prepared to act in response to future North Korea provocations. We hope it won't come to that."

The U.S. has 28,500 troops based in South Korea and a treaty obligation to defend it against attack.

On a visit to Indonesia on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked about the North Korean warning.

"My response to that is that I condemn their sinking of the Cheonan," Gates told reporters in Jakarta, referring to the South Korean ship that was sunk in March, killing 46 sailors.

South Korea and the U.S. accuse North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan in violation of the military armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953; the North denies any role in the sinking.

In Seoul on Wednesday, Gates said recent aggressive actions by Pyongyang may be linked to the process of picking a replacement for North Korea's ailing, reclusive leader, Kim Jong Il.

"There has been some indication over the last number of months that as the succession process gets under way in the North that there might be provocations," Gates said.

That makes it all the more important, Gates said, to demonstrate U.S. solidarity with the South and to remind the North that they would have nothing to gain from war.

Officials said the military exercises this summer, including anti-submarine warfare training, are designed to prevent further events like the sinking of the Cheonan.