South Korea, US finish joint military exercises

(Vatican Radio) The United States and South Korea have ended weeks of joint military exercises, drills that North Korea responded to with threats of nuclear war.

The two-month-long exercises involved about 10,000 U.S. and 200,000 South Korean troops.

In a closing statement, the U.S. military said the drills had been "based on realistic requirements", against an unspecified threat, although North Korea was widely considered to have been the focus.

The U.S. even -- at times -- flew nuclear-capable bomber aircraft overhead.

North Korea's state news agency said on Tuesday the exercises were "the main factor" in pushing the Korean peninsula towards nuclear war this year. As the drills began, Pyongyang declared it would no longer respect the Korean War armistice, and said its military now had permission to attack foreign targets with nuclear weapons.

But analysts say the North's war talk aimed also to boost its new leader: on Tuesday the state news agency also said new weapons, combined with leader Kim Jong-un's "strategy and tactics", had given North Koreans "an elite army".

Meanwhile, a standoff continues over a joint industrial zone inside North Korea where South Korean manufacturers produce clothing and electronics. Nearly all workers have now left the site, the sole remaining symbol of cross-border cooperation.

Listen to Alastair Wanklyn’s report: