Rodong Sinmun Saturday observes this in a signed commentary.

What merits a more serious attention is that the south Korean Ministry of Unification was directly involved in the exercise. This indicates that the south Korean conservative authorities are pursuing a criminal aim to harm the DPRK by force of arms with the U.S., still dreaming of "a contingency in the north," not seeking reconciliation between the north and the south and peace of the country, the commentary notes, and goes on:

The south Korean authorities had already worked out a variety of scenarios for bringing down the system in the north including an "emergency ruling plan" and the like and staged such charade as drafting what they called "unification constitution" the keynote of which is to achieve "unification under liberal democracy." Of late they came out even with a proposal on "unification tax" in a foolish bid to launch invasion of the north for unification to cope with the "contingency in the north." The above-said exercise was staged against this backdrop, pursuant to the "OPLAN 5029." This fact goes to prove the danger of that war exercise.

If the south Korean authorities go on with their provocations, pursuing the above-said wild ambition, instead of seeking reconciliation and cooperation with compatriots, it will be absolutely impossible to defuse the tension on the Korean Peninsula nor will it be possible to save the inter-Korean relations from a collapse.

Should the south Korean authorities persist in the confrontation with the north and moves for a war of aggression against it, swimming against the trend of the times, the DPRK will resolutely counter them, warns the commentary.