Pyongyang, Sep 14 (IANS) Senior officials of North Korea have condemned upcoming military drills by the US, South Korea and Japan, media reported on Sunday. Seoul will launch two simultaneous drills on Monday, including Freedom Edge, a trilateral outdoor multi-domain exercise with the US and Japan, and Iron Mace, a tabletop drill simulating a nuclear-attack response with the US, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), said the "Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula" fabricated by the US anad South Korea are a dangerous idea, Xinhua news agency reported.

She said the North Korea will regard it as an unfiltered demonstration of their anti-North Korean confrontational stand and "succession" of confrontational policy. The reckless show of strength made by the three countries in real action near North Korea will inevitably bring bad results to themselves, she added. Pak Jong Chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK, said Iron Mace is a "nuclear war rehearsal aimed at using nuclear weapons against North Korea from A to Z," while the Freedom Edge is the most comprehensive and offensive war drill for aggression in its scale, content and nature.

The reckless military moves of the three countries pose a grave challenge to the security interests of our state and a major danger of undermining regional stability and escalating military tension, he added. Pak stressed that if the hostile forces persist in their muscle-flexing, the North Korea will respond to them with "counteraction in a very clear and intensified way". Since a failed summit with the US in 2019 on denuclearisation, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons and declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state.

N.Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow. Moscow and Pyongyang signed a mutual defence pact last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the reclusive state.