WORLD BRIEFING / KOREAN PENINSULA

North Korea threatened South Korean passenger planes flying near its airspace and accused the U.S. and South Korea of attempting to provoke a nuclear war with upcoming joint military drills.

In response, South Korea’s Korean Air and Asiana Airlines rerouted their flights, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The threat from North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland came four days before annual exercises with the U.S. are to begin in South Korea and amid concerns that the North is preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.

The North did not say what kind of danger South Korean planes would face or whether it intended to shoot them down.