North Korea known as the continued South Korean-U.S. military drills a plot to invade the nation, because it threatened Tuesday to take unspecified “responsible” navy steps in response.

The North’s warning got here a day after the South Korean and U.S. forces kicked off their annual computer-simulated command publish coaching and quite a lot of area workout routines for an 11-day run. This year’s drills have been to contain 48 area workout routines, twice the quantity performed final 12 months.

In an announcement carried by state media, the North’s Defense Ministry stated it “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.”

An unidentified ministry spokesperson stated North Korea’s navy 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 did not say what measures North Korea would take, however observers say North Korea will doubtless perform missile checks or different steps to bolster its battle functionality.

North Korea views its rivals’ main navy drills as invasion rehearsals, although South Korean and U.S. officers have repeatedly stated their coaching are defensive in nature. North Korea has beforehand reacted to South Korean-U.S. workout routines with launches of a barrage of missiles into the ocean.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff stated final week that this 12 months’s navy drills with the United States have been designed to neutralize North Korean nuclear threats and would contain live-firing, bombing, air assault and missile interception drills.

Concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program have grown prior to now two years, because the North has test-launched missiles at a report tempo and openly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. The U.S. and South Korea have expanded their navy workout routines and elevated the deployment of highly effective U.S. navy property like plane carriers and nuclear-capable bombers in response.

This 12 months, North Korea carried out six rounds of missile tests and artillery firing drills. North Korean chief Kim Jong Un additionally declared his nation will not search reconciliation with South Korea and vowed to scrap the nation’s long-running objective of peaceful unification with South Korea. Kim stated North Korea would take a more aggressive military posture alongside the disputed sea boundary with South Korea.

Experts say North Korea might consider a much bigger weapons arsenal would offer it with a larger leverage in future diplomacy with the United States. They say North Korea is determined to win a global recognition as a nuclear state, a standing that it will suppose helps it win aid of U.S.-led financial sanctions.

North Korea is predicted to additional dial up tensions with extra missile checks and warlike rhetoric this 12 months because the U.S. and South Korea head into main elections. North Korea could stage restricted provocation close to the tense border with South Korea this 12 months, specialists say.