DPRK says latest US-ROK joint drills 'unprecedentedly hideous'

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that the latest US-ROK (Republic of Korea) joint military drills were "unprecedentedly hideous and most adventurous ones" in several decades.

In a military commentary, the official Korean Central News Agency said the US and ROK have made it public that all their joint military drills aimed to "remove the leadership" of the DPRK and "bring down its system."

These exercises had "thrown away their deceptive veils as annual drills and defensive ones," it said.

"The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle 17 joint military drills revealed that the new Trump administration, too, is resorting to the hostile policy toward the DPRK by use of force, tougher sanctions and pressure," it said.

The US and ROK have just concluded two-month-long joint military drills involving 300,000 troops.

The US has also sent its aircraft carrier task group USS Carl Vinson and a nuclear submarine to waters off the Korean peninsula, besides carrying out nuclear bomb dropping drills in ROK and test launching two intercontinental ballistic missile within one week from California to the Western Pacific over the past two weeks.