Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) -- The south Korean authorities are contemplating staging massive Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises from August 16 to 26 in collusion with the United States.

Rodong Sinmun Friday says in a bylined article in this regard:

The warmongers claim the aim of exercises is to strengthen the "combat posture of the south Korea-U.S. alliance" in a bid to "cope with and overcome all threats". But, with no rhetoric can they cover up their aggressive and dangerous nature.

The said exercises will be an undisguised military threat to the DPRK and a wanton challenge to the peace on the Korean Peninsula as they are a full revelation of the invariable policy of the warmongers at home and abroad for escalating the confrontation with it.

They, at the same time, prove that those forces do not want to see detente and peace on the Korean Peninsula but are set to realize their scenario for invading the DPRK in collusion with outside forces.

With the appearance of the conservative regime in south Korea the inter-Korean relations which had favorably developed since the adoption of the June 15 declaration deteriorated all of a sudden and are getting tenser as the days go by.

The joint military exercises against the north projected under such situation would further aggravate the already strained situation on the peninsula and increase the danger of a nuclear war.

History goes to clearly prove that military exercises of any form in south Korea would deteriorate the inter-Korean relations and throw stumbling blocks in the way of the independent and peaceful reunification of the country.

As the Panmunjom mission of the Korean People's Army demanded in a recent open letter to the U.S. and the south Korean authorities, the projected war exercises against the north should be canceled as they vitiate the atmosphere of dialogue and escalate the confrontation and tension on the Korean Peninsula.