<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">North Korea on Friday threatened an "unprecedentedly" strong response to upcoming US-South Korea joint military drills, describing them as preparations for war.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The warning came ahead of a tabletop exercise next week in Washington, in which the two allies will discuss responses to the use of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">North Korea has long condemned joint US-South Korea military drills, calling them rehearsals for an invasion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It regards the exercises planned for this year "with just apprehension and reason... as preparations for an aggression war", a spokesperson for the North Korean foreign ministry said in a statement released by state media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If Washington and Seoul go ahead with the drills, "they will face unprecedentedly persistent and strong counteractions", the statement added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under its hawkish President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea has beefed up military drills with the United States, which had been scaled back during the Covid pandemic.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They were also paused for a bout of ill-fated diplomacy with Pyongyang under his predecessor.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yoon's government is eager to convince the increasingly nervous South Korean public of Washington's commitment to deter Pyongyang, which last year declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear power and conducted a record number of weapons tests.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The exercise next week will focus on "joint planning, joint management and joint response with Washington's nuclear assets" in case of a nuclear attack by Pyongyang, a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP on Friday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pyongyang's aggressive statement reflects the significance of this drill, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The exercise will be an important criterion for the extent to which the US nuclear arsenal will be involved in deterring North Korea, Yang told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pyongyang has repeatedly said it is not interested in further talks, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently called for an "exponential" increase in his country's nuclear arsenal. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>