The U.S. should be “prepared” to pay an “equal price” for its military exercises on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea’s foreign ministry said Monday, defending its own missile tests as a response to U.S.-ROK drills that it called the “final stage” of a “nuclear war scenario against the DPRK.”

The foreign ministry statement released Monday blames the U.S. for raising regional tensions with a series of joint drills held this year, most recently this week’s large-scale Vigilant Storm aerial exercise.

“Owing to the large-scale war exercises staged by the U.S. and its vassal forces almost every day this year, the