N Korea holds massive drill to mark military anniversary
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SEOUL: Nuclear-armed North Korea on Tuesday marked a military anniversary with a massive conventional firing drill, Seoul said, as a US guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea amid tensions over Pyongyang's weapons ambitions.
Speculation had mounted that the North could carry out a sixth nuclear test or another missile launch to mark 85 years since the founding of its army.
But no such event -- which usually happens in the morning -- had taken place by mid-afternoon, and instead Seoul's defence ministry said Pyongyang was conducting a "massive fire drill" in the eastern port city of Wonsan.
The South's Yonhap news agency cited a government source as saying the exercise was the North's "largest ever" and presumed to have been overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un.
Washington has sent the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the Korean peninsula, where it is expected to arrive -- after a derision-provoking delay -- later this week.
Confusion had clouded the carrier's whereabouts earlier this month after US officials indicated it was sailing towards North Korea when in fact it was heading south.
The vessel will take part in joint naval drills with the South's forces to "demonstrate Seoul and Washington's strong determination to punish North Korean provocations", the South Korean Navy said in a statement. (APP)
