North Korea has labelled South Korea a “warmonger” and slammed the ROK in state media on Thursday for staging its largest ever artillery exercise, held on the peninsula on the same day.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) article said that the timing of the exercises and the nature of the scale indicates an attempt by the South to increase militarily pressure on the North and stoke tensions. 

“Hooligans of the south Korean military hell-bent on escalating confrontation with the compatriots in the north launched a mad-cap shelling provocation in all sectors of the front at 16:34 on Thursday,” the unattributed