DPRK Warns of Pre-emptive Nuke Strike Over Joint US-SK Military Drill

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday warned to heighten a "pre-emptive nuclear strike" on South Korea and the United States in response to the two allies' annual military drill that intends protect South Korea from Pyongyang's possible military aggression.

Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), the annual joint command and control exercise of the United States and South Korea, began its two-week run on Monday and involves tens of thousands of South Korean and U.S. forces.

This year's beginning of the drill coincides with the defection of one of North Korea's high-ranking officials in London.

In an English-language statement by North Korea's General Staff of the Korean People's Army (KPA) through the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), it stated that the United States and South Korea "should bear in mind that if they show the slightest sign of aggression on DPRK's inviolable land, seas and air, it would turn the stronghold of provocation into a heap of ashes through Korean-style preemptive nuclear strike."

The KCNA report further stated, "They should properly know that from this moment the first-strike combined units of the KPA keep themselves fully ready to mount a pre-emptive retaliatory strike at all enemy attack groups involved in Ulchi Freedom Guardian."

The statement also claimed that the exercise is "a clear manifestation of a vicious plot" to strip the DPRK's army of their cradle by force of arms, and that "The situation on the Korean peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out any moment."

The report also emphasized that the North Korean government is eager "to terminate the ever more reckless moves of the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces for a nuclear war not temporarily but indefinitely."

Over the weekend, the South Korean government warned the public that it is probable that DPRK may carry out some provocations during or after the military drills, especially because the exercise was coincidentally held after news of a North Korean official's defection last week.