News coverage showing file footage of a DPRK missile launch is seen on a screen at Seoul Station in Seoul on August 12, 2026. /VCG

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) slammed the upcoming joint military drills between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK), set to start on Monday, as "a rehearsal for an aggressive war," the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday, citing a press statement released a day earlier by a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

Referring to a US announcement that the large-scale Ulji Freedom Shield exercises are quite different from those of the past five years and are intended to master the ability of fighting a war on the basis of the new aspects of modern warfare, the statement said that the United States "did not conceal its aim to complete preparations for the substantial military confrontation with the DPRK."

The statement warned that the exercises are "posing a grave threat to security sphere of our state and regional security environment," due to their "more serious provocative nature and dangerousness than last year."

"It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent," the statement said.