North Korea threatened on Saturday to “counter the US” if the United States holds joint military exercises with South Korea, saying the drills would harm reconciliation efforts on the peninsula.

The United States is due to start joint exercises in early April, a South Korean presidential security adviser said this week according to Yonhap news agency – the latest in a series of drills that the north has regularly described as a threat.

“If the US finally holds joint military exercises while keeping sanctions on the DPRK, the DPRK will counter the US by its own mode of counteraction and the US will be made to own all responsibilities for the ensuing consequences,” North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said in its commentary.

The DPRK is the acronym of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

KCNA accused Washington of trying to “bring dark clouds of a war to hang over the Korean peninsula.”

“The US is swimming against the trend for the detente on the Korean peninsula,” KCNA said.

Source: AFP