North Korea, protesting the South Korea-U.S. combined military exercise Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), threatened that "it is necessary to respond to the increasingly evolving hostile forces' threatening actions with an evolved new power." It offered no particular reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent order to scale back the South Korea-U.S. combined exercises.

North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary on the 19th that "the exercise of the self-defensive right to thoroughly neutralize military threats will be expressed through even clearer actions," and stated accordingly.

On the 17th, at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, U.S. Forces Korea service members move busily in front of military vehicles as South Korean and U.S. militaries begin the routine joint drill Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) to defend the Korean Peninsula in contingencies. /Courtesy of Yonhap News

The agency asserted that "the hostile forces that infringe upon and threaten the sovereignty and security of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be kept within the crosshairs of ever-present annihilatory retaliatory means," and that "all invasion war drills by hostile countries will never bring about the results their executors desire."

The agency specifically mentioned the content, format, and scale of this UFS and criticized that the drill "is undergoing perilous evolution every time, different from the previous one." Regarding the United Nations Command (UNC) taking part in the exercise, it said it "is setting in motion the full-fledged revival of combat functions and expansion of roles," and claimed it is "a development of the situation that cannot be overlooked."

It went on to claim that South Korea is turning beyond a training ground for the South Korea-U.S. military alliance into "a gathering place for multinational invasion forces and a showcase for modern warfare." It added that "taking the frenzy-ridden drills lasting more than 10 days as an opportunity, the already rampant situation on the Korean Peninsula is once again reaching the 'critical point' of war breaking out."

However, the agency did not mention President Trump's recent order to drastically scale back the combined drills, or that South Korean and U.S. military authorities are reviewing adjustments to the exercise plan and reductions in field training exercises (FTX).

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