North Korea Thursday condemned a US-South Korea military drill as "war preparedness" and "confrontational policy", warning it would only cast shadow on the hard-won atmosphere for dialogue between the two Korean nations.
"While the US and South Korea authorities are loudly speaking about ensuring peace and security and building confidence on the Korean peninsula, they are, on the contrary, choreographing dangerous war racket and confrontation moves," the official KCNA news agency quoted a spokesman of the policy department of the National Defence Commission (NDC) as saying.
The "Ulji Freedom Guardian" military exercise, which started Aug 19, flied B-52 nuclear bombers over the Korean peninsula, openly posing a nuclear threat to North Korea, Xinhua reported citing the spokesman as saying.
"If the US truly wants denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, it should stop the nuclear blackmail against North Korea," said the statement.
The announcement came one day after South Korean President Park Geun-hye said North Korea should give up its nuclear weapons.
"Unless the DPRK dismantles its nuclear programme, national reunification and peace would go farther away," Park has said.
The NDC responded by saying that "the army and people of North Korea will neither give up nor make even a step backward in the road for ensuring peace and security of the country and building a powerful and prosperous country".