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By Micah McCartney
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North Korea has slammed the United States' upcoming large-scale military exercise with South Korea, threatening that it is prepared to respond with "overwhelming force" to defend its security.
The warning by the North Korean Foreign Ministry was released Friday, just two days after the country fired a missile into the Sea of Japan, its 11th launch so far this year.
The launch came as thousands of North Korean troops take part in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Seoul and its U.S. ally worry this is providing Pyongyang with valuable combat experience it might someday bring to bear if hostilities erupt on the Korean Peninsula.
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Pyongyang Threatens "Overwhelming Force"
The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, which runs for 10 days starting August 17, comes at a time "when the military and political situation is becoming more serious with each passing day in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world and the U.S. abuse of strength has become part of its daily routine," the ministry said an English-language statement published by state-run Korean Central News Agency.
American and South Korean officials had touted the 2026 edition's aim to better prepare participants for the changing nature of warfare and Pyongyang's growing capabilities, including exercises to counter drones, cyberattacks and GPS disruption.
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The U.S. will fail in its efforts to regain "military hegemony and rebuild the unilateral threatening structure" on the peninsula through the contentious wargames, the ministry said.
"The DPRK, [Democratic People's Republic of Korea], remains steadfast in its will to frustrate outsiders' hostile acts with the most powerful and overwhelming force and absolutely defend the supreme interests of state security," the statement read, using North Korea's official name.
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean Embassy in China via email for comment outside of regular office hours.
Ukraine War Looms
A longtime treaty ally, South Korea hosts approximately 28,500 U.S. troops. In recent years, the two have stepped up both the pace and sophistication of drills, increasingly also incorporating Japanese forces, in response to the North's growing missile and nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea routinely protests these exercises as provocations while insisting its nuclear and missile programs are defensive in nature.
Though hostilities largely ceased after a 1953 armistice, North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war since no peace treaty was signed.
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Pyongyang's involvement in Russia's war in Ukraine continues to be a concern and has raised fears that it has helped the North gain modern military experience.
North Korean veterans "have no doubt brought lessons home from that," U.N. Command Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Scott Winter, second-in-command of the U.S.-led United Nations force stationed in South Korea to oversee the armistice, warned Monday during a roundtable with South Korean reporters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he believes North Korea plans to dispatch an additional 30,000 to 50,000 troops to the conflict, or at least double the estimated 12,000 to 15,000 initially deployed in late 2024.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Feng and Sam Wilson.
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