US Army Apache helicopters take off at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Republic of Korea, March 4, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has strongly denounced the large-scale joint military exercise Freedom Shield staged by the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK), saying it would increase the unpredictability of the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.

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The annual springtime war game included a plan for outdoor mobile drills which doubled the number of last year and even the armed forces of 11 satellite countries under the so-called "UN Command" without any justification for existence were mobilized, the KCNA quoted a spokesman for the DPRK's Ministry of National Defense as saying in a press statement on Monday.

The US and ROK kicked off the major joint exercise on Monday, which will last for 11 days, the ROK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an earlier statement

"The large-scale war drills staged by the world's biggest nuclear weapons state and more than 10 satellite states against a state in the Korean Peninsula where a nuclear war may be ignited even with a spark can never be called 'defensive'," said the statement.

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The DPRK Ministry of National Defense strongly denounced the reckless military drills of the US and ROK for getting more undisguised in their military threat to a sovereign state and attempt to invade it and severely warned them to stop the moves that caused further provocation and instability.

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The US and ROK kicked off the major joint exercise on Monday, which will last for 11 days, the ROK's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an earlier statement.