North Korea on Saturday blamed the United States for its artillery attack on a South Korean island this week, accusing the U.S. of bringing on the confrontation between the divided Koreas to use it as an excuse to increase its military presence in the region, Yonhap reported.
The accusation came shortly after Seoul and Washington announced plans for a joint naval exercise in Korea's Yellow Sea in a show of force against the North, following its shelling of a populated South Korean island, Yeonpyeong, earlier this week.