美韩开始年度联合军演，朝鲜反应强烈
South Korea and the United States have begun their annual joint military exercise under the threat of military retaliation by North Korea.
About 25,000 U.S. forces and 50,000 South Korean troops are involved in the two-week Operation Ulchi Freedom exercise, which is largely simulated. The annual drills routinely anger Pyongyang, which says it sees the drills as a rehearsal for a full-scale invasion of the North, despite insistence by Seoul and Washington that the drills are purely defensive in nature.
A statement issued Monday by the North's military said its first-strike units were ready to turn the U.S. and Washington "into a heap of ashes through a Korean-style preemptive nuclear strike," if North Korea's sovereignty is threatened.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have worsened in recent months, with North Korea under harsh U.N. sanctions over a series of tests of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Relations are also likely aggravated by the recent defection of a high-ranking diplomat, Thae Yong Ho; Pyongyang's deputy ambassador to Britain. The North denounced Thae as "human scum" and accused him of a number of criminal acts, including child molestation.
South Korean President Park Guen-hye told her National Security Council Monday that Thae's defection was a sign of "serious cracks" in North Korea's ruling elites.在朝鲜军事报复的威胁下，美韩两国开始了它们的年度联合军演。
大约两万五千名美国士兵和5万名韩国士兵参加了为期两周的以模拟为主的“乙支自由卫士”联合军演。美韩年度联合军演通常会激怒朝鲜。朝鲜说，它把此类演习看作是对朝鲜发动全面侵略的预演。但是，首尔和华盛顿坚决表示，演习完全是防御性质的。
朝鲜军方星期一发布声明说，一旦朝鲜主权受到威胁，它已经准备好以朝鲜式的先发制人的核袭击，把美国和华盛顿变成一片废墟。
近几个月来，朝鲜半岛的紧张局势日益恶化。朝鲜因为从事了一系列核武器和弹道导弹测试而受到联合国的严厉制裁。最近，朝鲜驻英国大使馆的一名高层外交官、外交公使太勇浩（音）的叛逃，有可能加剧了朝鲜半岛的紧张关系。朝鲜称此人是“人渣”，并指控他从事了包括性骚扰儿童在内的一系列刑事犯罪行为。
韩国总统朴槿惠星期一对韩国全国安全委员会说，太勇浩的叛逃表明朝鲜执政精英内部存在“严重分裂”。
