(Kazan, July 22, Tatar-Inform). Planned naval exercises between South Korea and the United States are a threat to global peace, North Korea has warned.

"Such movements pose a great threat not only to the peace and security of the Korean peninsula but also to global peace and security," said Ri Tong Il, spokesman for the North Korean delegation at regional security talks in Vietnam, The Daily Telegraph reports.

South Korea and the United States have said that the exercises, scheduled from July 25, aim to deter North Korea from any future attack, after Seoul blamed Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

The drills off the Korean peninsula's western coast are the first overt military response to the March attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 South Korean sailors and heightened tensions on the peninsula.

South Korea, the United States and other nations - citing the findings of a multinational investigation - have accused the North of sending a submarine to torpedo the ship near the tense Yellow Sea border.

The UN condemned the attack as a threat to regional peace and called for "appropriate and peaceful measures" against those responsible.

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