North Korea issues trademark fiery rhetoric over US-South Korea drills

The North's military says it will launch an unspecified "merciless retaliation and unsparing punishment" on the United States over the Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills that began yesterday.

U.S. and South Korean soldiers salute during the South Korea-U.S. Combined Force Command at U.S. military base, in Seoul, South Korea. U.S. and South Korean military officials plan to move ahead with large-scale exercises later this month as North Korea,  

SEOUL: North Korea's military unleashed its standard fiery threats to greet the start of annual US-South Korean military drills that the North claims are an invasion rehearsal.

The North Korean rhetoric today came as top US generals, including Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of US forces in the Pacific, visited South Korea.

The US generals were to travel to the site of a contentious US missile-defense system in South Korea later today.

The North's military says it will launch an unspecified "merciless retaliation and unsparing punishment" on the United States over the Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills that began yesterday.

North Korea has previously issued similar warlike rhetoric whenever US and South Korean troops conducted major joint exercises.

An unprompted direct attack is extremely unlikely because the United States vastly outguns Pyongyang.

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