North Korea warns of 'dear price' for U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise

SEOUL, March 5 (UPI) -- North Korea warned Tuesday that the United States and South Korea will be "made to pay a dear price" for holding their annual Freedom Shield large-scale joint military exercise.

An unnamed representative of the North's Ministry of National Defense condemned the "provocative" 11-day exercise, which kicked off Monday with ramped-up field training drills and a focus on countering threats from the nuclear-armed North.

The ministry "strongly denounces the reckless military drills of the U.S. and [South Korea] for getting more undisguised in their military threat to a sovereign state and attempt for invading it," the statement, carried in state-run Korean Central News Agency, said.

The North Korean military will "continue to watch the adventurist acts of the enemies and conduct responsible military activities to strongly control the unstable security environment on the Korean Peninsula," the spokesperson said.

North Korea regularly condemns the allies' joint exercises as rehearsals for an invasion and has used the drills in the past as a pretext for its own missile tests. Freedom Shield is the first joint exercise since the North scrapped a 2018 inter-Korean military accord meant to reduce tensions along the border, raising additional concerns over a provocative response from Pyongyang.

On Tuesday, South Korea's Defense Ministry responded to the statement, calling Freedom Shield "a defensive military exercise conducted regularly every year to prepare for North Korea's provocations and aggression."

"Our military is thoroughly prepared for North Korea's provocations," a spokesman for the ministry said in a message to reporters. "If North Korea makes a direct provocation under the pretext of joint exercises, we will respond overwhelmingly."

The joint drills come as tensions remain at the highest point in years on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang has conducted a flurry of weapons tests this year and has ramped up its bellicose rhetoric toward South Korea, labeling Seoul its "principal enemy" last month.

The United States and South Korea, meanwhile, have increased their military cooperation with expanded drills and the deployment of U.S. assets such as aircraft carriers, a B-52 nuclear bomber and a nuclear ballistic missile submarine to the Korean Peninsula in recent months.

In addition to U.S. and South Korean forces, personnel from 11 other member countries of the United Nations Command are joining the exercise. Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Colombia, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand will take part in different capacities.