North Korea has slammed recent U.S.-led cyber exercises that featured South Korean operators, accusing Washington of seeking “world hegemony” through the drills.

The statement against the Cyber Flag 23 exercises published by the DPRK’s foreign ministry on Wednesday comes as the country’s hackers have reportedly stolen hundreds of millions of dollars through cyber crime this year.

“The reality clearly proves that cyberspace, the common asset of mankind, is being reduced to a site of acute confrontation due to the U.S. policy of seeking hegemony and bloc-forming,” according to the statement attributed to Kim Kuk Myong, a member of North Korea’s