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N. Korea: U.S. planning permanent presence

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea accused the U.S. on Wednesday of attempting to permanently station its troops in South Korea.

The move “is a sinister attempt to permanently keep Korea divided into two and stifle [North Korea] by force,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement, carried by the country’s Korean Central News Agency.

“[The Americans] are now working hard to provoke a new war, reinforcing the aggression forces in South Korea,” it said.

About 28,000 U.S. troops are now based in South Korea, but the number will drop to 25,000 by the end of this year.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since a 1953 cease-fire. South Korea has been pushing for a final peace agreement.

Calls to the U.S. command in Seoul were unanswered Wednesday, the first day of the three-day Lunar New Year holidays in South Korea.