North Korea strongly condemned an ongoing joint South Korea-U.S. military exercise on Tuesday, saying its nuclear deterrence capability will counter any threat.
The South Korean Army is holding a four-week joint military drill with the U.S. in the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, involving one South Korean mechanized infantry company and one special forces unit. The joint war game, scheduled to end on July 1, is the first of its kind to be held on U.S. soil.
Denouncing the war exercise as "the U.S.' reckless insanity aimed at crushing the (North Korean) republic by force," the North's mouthpiece newspaper Rodong Sinmun said it is "a rehearsal of an invasion into the North."
   "Realizing the hegemonic ambitions through military domination is the core of (President Barack) Obama's foreign policy," the newspaper said in an article.
"If the U.S. exercises its military violence, the myth of the sole super power will be blown out like dead leaves in late autumn," the newspaper said.
"(North Korea's) powerful nuclear deterrence is faithfully guarding our sky, land and sea," the article said, suggesting its nuclear capability to defend against provocations.
Touching on a reported plan to deploy the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery in South Korea, Rodong Sinmun said in a separate article, "It's nonsense we would only sit idly by and watch."
   "Our resolute determination is that we will sternly crush reckless challenges of invaders by strengthening self-defense nuclear deterrence," the newspaper said.