US troops deny ‘disgusting’ taunts at North Korean soldiers

SEOUL: The North Korean military accused US troops in the demilitarised border village of Panmunjom of “mocking” North Korean soldiers by pointing their fingers at them, making strange noises and pulling “disgusting” facial expressions in a statement.

It also accused American soldiers of encouraging South Korean troops to aim their guns at the Korean People’s Army (KPA) at the Oryonggye guard post on April 20 and April 21, insisting the “dangerous provocations” began on April 7 and continued until April 26, Yonhap news agency reported.

The statement warned US troops to stop the “hooliganism” or face “dog’s death any time any place”.

“The US imperialists and their stooges should not forget even for a moment what a miserable end they will meet as they recklessly act in the area at the risk of death,” a KPA spokesman said, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Spokesman for the American-led UN command, Christopher Bush, said it had looked into the allegations and found them to be unsubstantiated.

The accusations came a day after South Korean and US officials said two suspected medium-range missiles launched by North Korea ended in failure.

The North Korean military insinuated the “serious provocations” were “timed to coincide” with the annual joint US-South Korea military exercises, which began in March and are set to end on Saturday.

This is not the first time allegations of unruly behaviour have been made between the two sides.

In 2006, US troops claimed North Korean soldiers spat across the border’s demarcation line, made throat-slashing gestures and flashed their middle fingers following Pyongyang’s first nuclear bomb test.

Around 28,000 American troops are deployed in Panmunjom, just north of the de facto border between North and South Korea, which saw the signing of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement that paused the Korean War.

The village is visited regularly by tourists who are warned not to make gestures that could anger North Korean soldiers nearby. – The Independent