美韓開始年度聯合軍演，朝鮮反應強烈

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.在朝鮮軍事報復的威脅下，美韓兩國開始了它們的年度聯合軍演。

大約兩萬五千名美國士兵和5萬名韓國士兵參加了爲期兩週的以模擬爲主的“乙支自由衛士”聯合軍演。美韓年度聯合軍演通常會激怒朝鮮。朝鮮說，它把此類演習看作是對朝鮮發動全面侵略的預演。但是，首爾和華盛頓堅決表示，演習完全是防禦性質的。

朝鮮軍方星期一發布聲明說，一旦朝鮮主權受到威脅，它已經準備好以朝鮮式的先發制人的核襲擊，把美國和華盛頓變成一片廢墟。

近幾個月來，朝鮮半島的緊張局勢日益惡化。朝鮮因爲從事了一系列核武器和彈道導彈測試而受到聯合國的嚴厲制裁。最近，朝鮮駐英國大使館的一名高層外交官、外交公使太勇浩（音）的叛逃，有可能加劇了朝鮮半島的緊張關係。朝鮮稱此人是“人渣”，並指控他從事了包括性騷擾兒童在內的一系列刑事犯罪行爲。

韓國總統朴槿惠星期一對韓國全國安全委員會說，太勇浩的叛逃表明朝鮮執政精英內部存在“嚴重分裂”。