N. Korea slams US-led naval exercise, vows to respond with 'deterrence of new level' - The Korea Times

Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise takes place off the coast of Hawaii, July 22, in this photo released by the US Navy July 24. Yonhap

North Korea on Tuesday denounced a recent U.S.-led multinational naval exercise as a "war rehearsal" and threatened to respond with a "deterrence of new level."

An article, attributed to "a military commentator" and published by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), pointed to the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise as evidence of deepening military cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan, and called it "a war rehearsal of aggression."

RIMPAC, the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise, took place in and around the Hawaiian Islands from June 24 to July 31.

The article cited the expanded operational roles played by South Korea and Japan in the drills as proof of Washington's push for trilateral interoperability and an attempt to "establish an absolute military hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region."