SEOUL — North Korea debuted a new tactic in its ongoing war of rhetoric against the U.S. military: targeting environmental issues.
KCNA carried a statement from the DPRK Natural Conservation Union Central Committee that “bitterly denounced” the U.S. military for “their terrible environmental pollution … (on) its aggressive military bases, drill ground, bombing ground and firing ranges.”
The report went on to criticize the U.S. plan to reorganize its bases onto a set of expanded hubs in the central and southern parts of South Korea.
“The materialization of the U.S. plan would reduce the whole land of South Korea to a living hell where natural and ecological environment would be severely polluted,” the report read.
The North Korean government also accused the U.S. military of conducting almost 200 spy flights in its airspace during November, according to a separate report carried on the North’s official news agency Tuesday.
North Korea releases a “tally” of what it characterizes as spy flights each month; U.S. officials have not responded to such claims.
“The U.S. continues to carry out spy flights though it vociferously calls for resolving the nuclear weapons issue through dialogue. There is no change in American ambition to militarily suppress the republic,” the Korean Central News Agency report, posted on various Internet sites, read.
KCNA claimed the spy flights were carried out by U.S. aircraft including U-2s, RC-135s, E-3s and EP-3s.
