In a statement issued via state media on Monday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry called the Freedom Shield drills "a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point."

North Korea denounced joint military drills between the US and South Korea saying the South Korean Air Force’s recent bombing mistake shows the risk of the region unintentionally getting dragged into a new armed conflict.

North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea after South Korea and the U.S. kicked off their first major joint military exercise of President Donald Trump’s second term.