South Korean and U.S. troops have conducted joint combat firing drills near the border with North Korea involving heavy weapons, as Pyongyang lambasted the allies for dangerous moves pushing the region to the brink of “an inferno of nuclear war.”

North Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that drills by the United States and its allies have pushed the situation to an "Red-line" and threaten to turn the peninsula into a "huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone."