U.S. military helicopter crashes near N. Korean border

PanARMENIAN.Net - A U.S. military helicopter taking part in a joint South Korea-U.S. drill has crashed near the North Korean border, The Daily Telegraph reported.

A U.S. military official identified the aircraft as a CH-53 U.S. Marine helicopter that was carrying three crew and 13 other personnel during a training exercise. No one was reportedly injured in the crash.

The U.S. official described the crash as a "hard landing" in Cheolwon county, which touches on the border with North Korea.

The Korean peninsula is currently at a state of heightened military tensions, partly due to North Korea's anger over the ongoing South Korea-US military exercises, which it sees as an invasion rehearsal.

There are 28,500 U.S. military personnel permanently stationed in South Korea.

After a day of festivities to mark the 101st birthday of Kim Il-sung, North Korea on Tuesday, April 16 offered new prickly rhetoric against the United States and South Korea.

State media said the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army issued an ultimatum demanding an apology from South Korea for "hostile acts" and threatening that unspecified retaliatory actions would happen at any time.

The statement, relayed through the KCNA state media agency, came after a day of festivities in North Korea's capital that featured art performances, public dances and crowds thronging to giant bronze statues to pay homage to the late leader Kim Il Sung,

The renewed rhetoric was sparked by a protest in downtown Seoul, where effigies of Kim Il-sung and his son and successor, late leader Kim Jong-il, were burned.

The North's statement said it would refuse any offers of talks with the South until it apologised for the "monstrous criminal act." North Korea often denounces such protests, but rarely in the name of the Supreme Command, which is headed by Kim Il Sung's grandson and North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un.

"If the puppet authorities truly want dialogue and negotiations, they should apologise for all anti-DPRK hostile acts, big and small, and show the compatriots their will to stop all these acts in practice," the statement said.