DPRK asks US, ROK to scrap Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has asked the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) to immediately scrap this year's Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise, the official KCNA news agency reported Thursday.

"Their war exercises are not only a blatant challenge to the sincere efforts of the DPRK for improving inter-Korean relations and achieving detente on the Korean Peninsula, but also a grave military provocation against the DPRK," a spokesman for the National Peace Committee of Korea said in a statement released by the KCNA.

The ROKn military officials have announced their "tailored deterrence strategy" that will be formally applied in the joint exercise in order to deal with the "nuclear and missile threats" from the DPRK, said the KCNA report.

The spokesman warned that all military forces to take part in the drill and the bases behind them, including the White House, Pentagon, Chongwadae, and military bases in the ROK and overseas, will be the targets of the DPRK's ultra-modern precision fire strike means, such as strategic and tactical rockets.

To respond to the joint maneuvers between the United States and the ROK, the DPRK plans to carry out military drills on a regular basis, and will adopt a "nuclear-to-nuclear" "missile-to-missile" strategy to fight back, the statement said.

It called on the United States and the ROK not to misjudge the efforts of the DPRK to maintain peace in the region and to halt provocative maneuvers against the DPRK at once.

Ulchi Freedom Guardian, or UFG, is a joint military exercise between the ROK and the United States slated in August or September annually.

The maneuver, first launched in 1975 and previously known as Ulchi Focus Lens, aims to defend the ROK from attacks from the DPRK.