DPRK slams U.S.-S.Korean joint military exercises

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) denounced on Sunday the United States and South Korea for mulling kicking off the military drills on March 7, saying the United States should be responsible if a war breaks out in the Korean Peninsula.

The military exercises are "dangerous war rehearsals which fully reveal their aggressive nature" as the United States said plans to examine the feasibility of including a "beheading operation" in the drills, according to a statement issued by the spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry.

The statement warned that in case a war should break out, it would neither be limited to the Korean Peninsula nor be a conventional war.

No one can guarantee that confrontation between the Untied States and the DPRK will not escalate into a global thermonuclear war, it added.

The statement threatened that the DPRK will turn its military counter-actions into "preemptive attacks" as the situation has reached "an uncontrollable grave phase."

A decisive preemptive attack is the only way for the DPRK to beat back surprise attacks by U.S. ultra-modern military hardware and special forces, it said.

Annual military drills code-named "Key Resolve" and "Foal Eagle" will be jointly staged by South Korea and the United States from March 7 to April 30. The exercises this year are reported to be carried out on the largest-ever scale, mobilizing the highest-tech weapons.