PYONGYANG - The military of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has called on the United States and Republic of Korea(ROK) to cancel their joint military exercises scheduled for August 16-26, the official KCNA news agency reported Monday.

The war games are part of the "hysteria for a war of aggression" against the DPRK and would be "all-out nuclear war maneuvers, the KCNA quoted the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army (KPA) as saying in an open letter.

The United States and ROK should cancel the planned exercises to show their will for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, replace the armistice system by a peace-keeping mechanism on the peninsula and show their willingness to normalize DPRK-US relations and the inter-Korean relations, said the KPA mission.

"If the other party launches a nuclear war, the DPRK is ready to counter it with nukes," the mission warned in the letter, saying that if war breaks out, the DPRK will lose the military demarcation line and gain national reunification.

The DPRK army urged the United States and ROK to "behave with discretion, cogitate and choose a wise way out at the crossroads of dialogue or confrontation and peace or war."