US, South Korea Begin Largest Joint Military Drills In Five Years

South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest joint military exercises in five years on Monday, after nuclear-armed Pyongyang warned such drills could be seen as a “declaration of war.”

In the face of growing threats from the North, which has conducted a series of prohibited weapons tests in recent months, Washington and Seoul have increased defence cooperation.

The US-South Korean exercises, dubbed Freedom Shield, are set to begin on Monday and will focus on the “changing security environment” caused by North Korea's redoubled aggression, according to the allies.

In an unusual move, the Seoul military revealed this month that it and Washington special forces were staging “Teak Knife” military exercises ahead of Freedom Shield, which involved simulating precision strikes on key North Korean facilities.

All such drills enrage North Korea, which sees them as practice for an invasion.

It has stated that its nuclear and missile programmes are for self-defence.

North Korea launched two “strategic cruise missiles” from a submarine off its east coast over the weekend, according to the official KCNA news agency on Monday.

The agency cited the country's “invariable stand” to confront a situation in which “the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces are getting ever more undisguised in their anti-DPRK military manoeuvres.”

“Pyongyang has military capabilities under development that it wants to test anyway, and it likes to use Washington and Seoul's cooperation as an excuse,” said Leif-Eric Easley, an Ewha University professor in Seoul.

North Korea's foreign ministry said in a separate statement that the US was “scheming” to call a UN Security Council meeting on human rights in the reclusive communist state to coincide with the joint manoeuvres.

“The DPRK bitterly denounces and categorically rejects the US vicious ‘human rights’ racket as the most intensive expression of its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” the ministry said, according to KCNA.

Last year, the North declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power and launched a record-breaking number of missiles, with leader Kim Jong Un ordering his military to intensify drills in preparation for a “real war” last week.