Despite North Korea branding the event as the most explicit expression of hostility, the United States and South Korea has moved to begin the 10-day joint military drill today. The event is named as Ulchi Freedom Guardian. An estimated 40,000 American and SDouth Korean troops are expected to take part in the exercise.

The North Korean official newspaper was critical of this war games being played near Korean Peninsula and reportedly published, “The joint exercise is the most explicit expression of hostility against us, and no one can guarantee that the exercise won't evolve into actual fighting…….If the United States is lost in a fantasy that war on the peninsula is at somebody else's door far away from them across the Pacific, it is far more mistaken than ever…….The Trump group's declaration of the reckless nuclear war exercises against the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] ... is a reckless behavior driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war”. The paper added that these war exercises would heighten the tensions in the Peninsula just like adding fuel to fire.

Russia and China have pushed for a solution that involved North Korea stopping its testing of ballistic missiles in exchange for U.S. and South Korea not taking part in joint exercises, however, Washington, last week confirmed that these training programs are not on the negotiating table and the current scheduled exercise would move ahead as planned.