Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- Papers Tuesday in bylined commentaries slam the U.S. and south Korea for kicking off the Ulji Freedom Guardian joint military exercises for aggression today.

The exercises are scheduled to last till August 26. The U.S. and south Korea claim that the exercises are aimed to "cope with and thwart threat" from someone. But, this is little short of openly declaring that they would escalate military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, Rodong Sinmun says, and goes on:

The development proves that the exercises are a drill for an all-out war against the DPRK and largest-ever nuclear test war in the light of the means and scale of forces involved in them and their program and nature.

What should not be overlooked is that the U.S. warmongers are contemplating forming a joint task force with the 20th Support Command of the U.S. Army as the principal axis. The Command carried out the duty of detecting and destroying WMDs in Iraq. They also mull staging war exercises of "eliminating" nuclear facilities in the DPRK under the simulated conditions of an actual war.

The south Korean conservative forces make no scruple of plunging all the Koreans into a war disaster to realize their ambition for invading the north in collusion with foreign forces, Minju Joson notes, and goes on:

The Ulji Freedom Guardian clearly proves that the dialogue touted by the south Korean authorities is nothing but a cynical ploy to mislead the public opinion.

The DPRK is ready for both dialogue and war. The south Korea and U.S. should immediately stop the joint military exercises, though belatedly.