DPRK slams Seoul's ongoing military exercise

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday slammed South Korea's ongoing military exercise, codenamed "Hoguk," saying the drill is in fact a "preliminary war."

"The rehearsal is a nuclear test war for aggression on the DPRK in light of its scale and content," the secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement.

The statement blamed Seoul for staging the largest-scale war exercise targeting the DPRK while seeking dialogue with it at the same time.

It added that the South Korean authorities just used dialogue as a "camouflage" for their intention to escalate confrontation and step up military moves.

The annual drill, which runs on Nov. 10-21 this year and is the largest ever, mobilizes 330,000 troops. Last year, about 80,000 soldiers participated in the exercise.

The drill also involves about 23,000 mobile military equipment, 60 warships and numerous airplanes, according to South Korea's defense ministry.

The Hoguk drill replaced in 1996 the Team Spirit exercise between South Korea and the United States.