'Mercilessly avenge'

It warned that if the ROK or the US responds "recklessly" to the DPRK's counteractions, prompt actions by rocket forces deployed in the southwestern sector will turn the five islands in the Yellow Sea into a "sea of flames".

The ROK and the US launched a five-day joint naval military drill on Monday in the Yellow Sea with the participation of a nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class submarine.

The anti-submarine regular exercises, which came in the wake of the two-month-long joint Foal Eagle military exercise, also involves Aegis destroyers and P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft deployed from US bases.

The DPRK said on Sunday that if Seoul really worries about the future of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, it should stop all its hostile policy and provocative military drills toward Pyongyang.

However, a ROK Defense Ministry spokesman brushed off the warnings, saying that "as long as the combined forces and South Korean military exist, the drills will continue".

The DPRK was expected to be discussed at a meeting between US President Barack Obama and ROK President Park Guen-hye at the White House on Tuesday, where they were scheduled to have a working lunch followed by a joint news conference.

The DPRK has also remained in the spotlight after it sentenced a Korean-American who visited the country in November to 15 years hard labor for what it said were crimes against the state.

Human rights activists in the ROK say Kenneth Bae may have been arrested for taking pictures of starving children. A US official said last week Washington was not looking for an envoy to try to secure the release of Bae, who was sentenced last week.

Reuters-Xinhua