No surprise here:

The DPRK on Friday blasted a planned military drill by the US and South Korea, demanding that the two countries cancel the plan.

“This is an extremely dangerous (case of) playing with fire, intended to ignite a war against the DPRK,” said a spokesman of the Korean National Peace Committee (KNPC), quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“This is a dangerous development indicating their intention to further strain the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” the spokesman added.

“The U.S. and South Korean authorities should immediately cancel their plan for the reckless joint military exercises as they will only push the situation on the Korean Peninsula to (an) extreme level of tension,” he said.

The exercise, known as Ulji Focus Lens 2006, is scheduled to take place from Aug. 21 until Sept. 1, involving 8,000 U.S. troops and an undisclosed number of South Korean soldiers.

It will be one of the two large-scale U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises to be held this year.

The U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command described the exercise features computer-simulated war games conducted at command posts and will not include field maneuvers.