Pyongyang threatens a response to the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises

North Korea has threatened a response "with a new level of deterrence" to the annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States, scheduled from Monday until 27 August. The statement comes from a spokesperson for the North Korean foreign ministry and is reported by the Yonhap news agency.

The drills are called Ulchi Freedom Shield and take place every year. According to Pyongyang, however, Washington has stressed that this year's edition will be very different from those of the past five years. For the North, that change demonstrates a US intention to refine modern warfare tactics and complete preparations for a military confrontation.

"Responding to a new level of threat with a new level of deterrence is our constant principle," the spokesperson said, reiterating the intention to defend the country's security interests with the most powerful and overwhelming force.

Pyongyang regards the exercises as a general rehearsal for war, a formulation that has recurred in its official communications for years. Words were followed by action: North Korea carried out missile launches on both Wednesday and Thursday last week.

According to South Korea's unification ministry, this is the North's first official reaction to this year's manoeuvres. It is a detail watched closely in Seoul, because the moment Pyongyang chooses to take a position tends to signal the intensity of the response that follows.

The annual exercises have long been the fixed point around which the calendar of tension on the peninsula turns. They repeat with the same statements and the same counter-moves, and it is precisely their regularity that makes variations significant: this year the change announced by the United States in the content of the drills is what the North cites as its reason for alarm.