PYONGYANG, North Korea, March 3 (UPI) -- North Korea said Monday it would bolster its defenses in response to U.S-South Korean military exercises, all but erasing any progress from symphonic diplomacy.
The United States and South Korean embarked on joint annual military exercises in the region and it is customary for North Korea to denounce the practice sessions.
Hopes of stemming the diplomatic fray between the West and North Korea were raised recently following a performance by the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang. But those hopes were dissolved when North Korean officials said they would "further bolster all its deterrent forces" in response to the military exercises, The New York Times reported Monday.
North Korea's state-run media quoted a North Korean military official Sunday saying the communist country was ready to "use all our means we have prepared" to strike back if necessary.
The rhetoric from the North does not help to move along six-party disarmament talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, the Times said.
The talks stalled over Pyongyang's failure to make its nuclear program fully transparent by a Dec. 31 deadline.
