![A throng of North Korean youths hold a protest rally at a theater in Pyongyang on March 22, over the joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States conducted then. [KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2023/05/03/4bafcc5d-57de-4c39-bdf6-3ff3262dfdce.jpg)
North Korean youth and students held a rally to denounce a recent agreement reached by South Korean and U.S. leaders on strengthening U.S. extended deterrence, Pyongyang’s state media said Wednesday.
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the protest was held in South Hwanghae Province the previous day to “sternly punish” the United States and South Korea, or what it called each “gangster” and “puppet” states.
The KCNA said the participants, full of determination for revenge, burned an effigy depicting the “invaders and provocateurs,” apparently referring to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden.
The protesters also slammed Yoon’s state visit to Washington as the “most hostile, aggressive and humiliating act of subjugating to the United States” and a move to stage a “nuclear war” against the North, it added.
Yoon and Biden held a summit in Washington last week and announced the adoption of the Washington Declaration on strengthening U.S. extended deterrence against the North’s threats.
Extended deterrence refers to the U.S. commitment to mobilizing all of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its ally.
Yonhap
