Updated at 1515 KST: this article has been updated to include a response from South Korea’s defence ministry.

A spokesperson for North Korea’s military on Friday condemned a recent round of military drills by South Korea, warning that relations between the two Koreas stood to worsen to pre-2018 levels should Seoul continue its “deliberate pursuit of confrontation.”

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), an unnamed spokesperson for the North’s Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces slammed a round of joint exercises by South Korea’s air force and navy on Wednesday in the country’s West Sea.