Afghanistan, Nov. 2 -- North Korea has condemned a recent US-South Korean military exercise as a rehearsal for nuclear war and vowed to accelerate efforts to strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
Kim Jong-sik, a senior official of the ruling Workers' Party, said the Iron Mace exercise demonstrated what Pyongyang described as Washington's continuing ambition to threaten North Korea with nuclear weapons, state media KCNA reported on Monday.
Kim called the drill a "nuclear war rehearsal" aimed at using atomic weapons against North Korea and said the country needed to strengthen its nuclear forces more rapidly to counter potential threats.
The Iron Mace tabletop exercise was held at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul from ...