In a statement quoted by the state news agency KCNA, the Ministry of National Defense pointed out that this year’s maneuvers are twice as large as those of the previous year and involve troops from 12 member states of the United Nations Command.

Created in 1950 by UN mandate, this body is in charge of supervising the implementation of an armistice signed in 1953, but it technically did not end the war because the warring parties did not sign a peace treaty.

The DPRK Defense Ministry claimed that exercises involving the world’s largest nuclear weapons owners and a dozen of its allies cannot be described as ‘defensive,’ and warned that conditions exist on the Korean Peninsula for war to break out over a minor incident.

A few days before the start of the 11-day Freedom Shield, the US and South Korean armies said that the war games were aimed at enhancing their ‘combined defense stance’ and would focus on multi-domain operations using land, sea, air, cyber and space assets.

The Defense Ministry categorically condemns the reckless military exercises by the US and the ROK, which lay bare the military threat and efforts of aggression against a sovereign state, and earnestly warns to cease such provocative actions, the statement pointed out.

The DPRK Armed Forces will closely monitor the enemies’ adventurous actions and continue their responsible military activities to control the unstable security environment on the Korean Peninsula, the press release added.

Pyongyang has long denounced military exercises by the US and its allies as rehearsals for an invasion against it and, in response, it has systematically modernized its defense system.

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