N Korea threatens \\\'merciless\\\' strike against US-S Korea drill

North Korea warned on Sunday of a ‘merciless’ pre-emptive strike as it blasted upcoming joint US-South Korean military exercises as a rehearsal for nuclear war. South Korea and the United States on Monday start the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill aimed at testing combat readiness for a North Korean invasion. Although largely played out on computers, it involves tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops. In a statement published on Sunday by the official Korean Central News Agency, the North’s military accused Washington and Seoul of planning a ‘dangerous’ rehearsal for nuclear war. ‘We declare once again that we will mercilessly open the strongest ... pre-emptive strike of our own style any time at our discretion,’ it said. North Korean soldiers were ready to ‘turn the strongholds of aggression into a sea of fire and ashes’, the statement said, according to AFP.