Recent hostile measures by the U.S. drove North Korea into taking “self-defensive countermeasures” and to develop “powerful physical means,” the country’s ruling party daily said on Wednesday.

A Korean-language commentary written by Ri Hak Nam and carried on the sixth page of the Rodong Sinmun said that recent ROK-U.S. joint drills had revealed that Washington “does not hope for peace and improvement in relations on the Korean peninsula and pursues an impure purpose.”

“The situation on the Korean peninsula and in the region has deteriorated day by day due to the U.S.’s reckless war rehearsal racket and machinations of building up