PYONGYANG, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) slammed the upcoming joint military drills between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK), set to start on Monday, as "a rehearsal for an aggressive war," the official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday, citing a press statement released a day earlier by a DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

File Photo taken on March 7, 2016 shows K9 self-propelled howitzers during joint military drills held by South Korea and the United States in Paju, South Korea. (File photo: Xinhua)

Referring to a U.S. announcement that the large-scale Ulji Freedom Shield exercises are quite different from those of the past five years and are intended to master the ability of fighting a war on the basis of the new aspects of modern warfare, the statement said that by doing so, the United States "did not conceal its aim to complete preparations for the substantial military confrontation with the DPRK."

The statement warned that the exercises are "posing a grave threat to security sphere of our state and regional security environment," due to their "more serious provocative nature and dangerousness than last year."

"It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent," the statement said.