North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said a U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise could "ignite a war" and called for the rapid expansion of Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called U.S.-South Korea joint drills an "obvious expression of their will to provoke war" and pledged to expand his nuclear arsenal to counter his nation's adversaries,

Pyongyang regularly criticizes such drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes responds with weapons tests, but Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.