The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) assailed on Friday the scheduled joint military exercise of the United States and South Korea targeting the DPRK, and warned to increase its war deterrent force.

A spokesman of the DPRK Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Ulji-Focus Lens-04 joint military exercise, which the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command announced to stage from Aug.23 to Sept. 3, "is another grave challenge to peace and security on the Korean peninsula."

The planned military exercise is a replica of the Team Spirit joint military exercises aimed to examine and improve all aspects of the preparations for "a war of aggression against the north," the statement added.

This once again proves that the US, who "hypocritically" asserted on "no will to invade or attack north Korea" and "pursuing no hostile policy toward it," has put the strategy of preemptive attack "into the phase of implementation, far beyond the phase of discussion," the statement said.

"Now that the US destroys the basic foundation for the six-party talks to seek a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, the DPRK will never react to such enemy saber-rattling with such foolish option for disarmament," the statement said.

"The DPRK is left with no option but to increase its war deterrent force both in quality and quantity," the statement noted.

"The South Korean authorities should bear in mind that they would have to pay dearly for such treacherous acts as joining the US in its north-targeted exercises," the statement also warned.

The leading newspaper Rodong Sinmun also criticized in a commentary on Friday that the US is "preparing an invasion war against the DPRK behind the curtain of dialogues and negotiations"and warned that the right of "preemptive attack" is not a monopoly of the US.

Source: Xinhua