N. Korea denounces military exercises in S. Korea

North Korea on Saturday denounced large-scale military exercises under way in South Korea as a "very dangerous preliminary war for invasion," demanding the South halt the drills immediately or face "catastrophic consequences."

South Korea launched the Hoguk exercises across the country on Thursday for a nine-day run. On Friday, thousands of troops conducted maneuvers off the country's northernmost island of Baengnyeong near the tense western sea border with North Korea.

The exercises "are a very dangerous preliminary war for invasion of the DPRK (North Korea) as they may go over to an actual war anytime," the North's Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in an "information bulletin" carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency.