North Korea Threatens Australia Over Standing by US, Joining Military Drills

North Korean representative calls the drills 'a suicidal act of inviting disaster'

South Korean soldiers (R) stand guard as passengers walk past, during an anti-terror drill on the sidelines of South Korea-US joint military exercise, called Ulchi Freedom, at a subway station in Seoul on August 23, 2016. South Korea and the United States kicked off large-scale military exercises on August 22, triggering condemnation and threats of a pre-emptive nuclear strike from North Korea. / AFP / JUNG YEON-JE Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea is threatening Australia for joining in the massive annual U.S.–South Korea joint military exercises now underway in South Korea.

North Korea issued the belligerent statements through its official mouthpiece news agency KCNA, where a representative for the regime’s Foreign Affairs Ministry took aim at Australia for siding with the United States, its long-standing ally, as it stares down a North Korean nuclear threat.

The representative condemned Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s “reckless remarks” made earlier this month, when he affirmed the Australia–U.S. mutual defense and military cooperation treaty, ANZUS, which prompts each country to come to the aid of the other should either be attacked.

The North Korean representative said ANZUS exists “in name only,” and described the Aug. 21 to Aug. 31 military drills, known as Ulchi Freedom Guardian, as “aggressive nuclear exercises of the U.S.”

It's not the first time Australia has joined in the exercises.