DPRK accuses Trump of "begging for nuclear war" by staging dangerous military drills

PYONGYANG, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has accused late Saturday U.S. President Donald Trump of "begging for nuclear war" by staging "extremely dangerous" military drills on the Korean Peninsula and simulating real-scenario-attacks upon DPRK.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the United States is planning to carry out the largest-ever joint aerial drill with South Korea targeting the DPRK from Dec. 4 to 8, which he said will push the current touch-and-go situation in the peninsula to a possible flare-up.

"More than 230 fighters from the U.S. air force bases in Japan and South Korea including its latest stealth fighters F-22 Raptor and F-35, the U.S. major strategic assets as well as some 12,000 U.S. troops are to participate in the said drill," said the spokesman.

The United States and South Korea hold annual large scale military drills over the alleged threat from the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs.

The DPRK foreign ministry spokesman said this drill would be unprecedented in its size and nature of simulating actual combat situation and have the highest number of U.S. major strategic assets including the F-22 Raptor and F-35 stealth fighters.

"The U.S. is publicly touting the objective of the drill as enhancing the actual combat capability to disable the DPRK's major strategic bases in the early stages of war," the spokesman noted.

He pointed out that Washington has just wound up a large-scale nuclear war drill against the DPRK which involved three nuclear-powered aircraft carrier strike groups. Such exercises are fueling the speculation that a U.S. nuclear attack on the DPRK is indeed possible and plausible

"The Trump team is begging for a nuclear war by staging an extremely dangerous nuclear gamble on the Korean Peninsula," he said.

The tension in the Korean Peninsula is extremely high.

The DPRK test fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) -- "Hwasong 15 "-- last week which it said could hit the entire territory of the United States, thus marking the completion of DPRK's rocket weaponry system, according to Pyongyang's own description of its nuclear and missile system. Enditem