Key facts
- Kim Jong-sik called the Iron Mace exercise "the most hideous nuclear war rehearsal aimed at using nuclear weapons against the DPRK."
- South Korea and the U.S. held the Iron Mace tabletop exercise in Seoul from September 29 to October 2.
- Kim said strengthening North Korea's nuclear deterrent at an ever faster pace is an "immutable" national defense policy.
North Korea on Monday denounced a recent South Korea-U.S. combined military exercise that integrates South Korea's conventional forces with U.S. nuclear capabilities, saying it would keep strengthening its nuclear capabilities against such a backdrop.
In a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong-sik, first vice department director of the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Committee, called the drill, named Iron Mace, "the most hideous nuclear war rehearsal aimed at using nuclear weapons against the DPRK." DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.