Backgrounder: How DPRK has condemned U.S.-S. Korea joint military exercises

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sunday slammed the Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise jointly conducted by South Korea and the United States, calling it the "most undisguised physical measure and provocative action."

The DPRK has condemned the annual joint military exercises every year. Following is a look at the DPRK's wording in recent years.

2016 -- "An outrageous provocation for a nuclear war against the North aimed to encroach upon the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and infringe on the vital rights of its people."

2015 -- "(The war games) are the root cause of the escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and the danger of nuclear war facing the Korean nation."

2014 -- "The most dangerous nuclear war maneuver for invading the North, to which the tailored deterrence strategy aimed to make a preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK was applied for the first time."

2013 -- "If the enemies fire even a single shell on our inviolable territory and territorial waters, the Korean People's Army should deal prompt deadly blows at them and make an all-out counter-offensive to achieve national reunification."

2012 -- "The war drills ... prove that the U.S. is the harasser of peace and provoker of a war that upsets the stability on the Korean Peninsula." Endi