North Korea calls for an immediate halt to US-South Korean military exercises

North Korea's foreign ministry has called on the UN to call for an immediate halt to US-South Korea-planned joint military exercises as the exercises escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula. "The UN and the international community must urge the US and South Korea to immediately halt their provocative statements and joint military exercises," North Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister for International Organizations Kim Son Gyong said in a statement issued Sunday. He said: "It is unfortunate that the UN has been completely silent on the [joint] exercises, which are clearly aggressive in nature. Kim added that exercises and rhetoric by the US and its allies are "irresponsibly increasing the level of confrontation" in the region The Korean Peninsula is emerging as the world's largest powder keg and war training ground as a result of a military expansion program led by the United States and its allies," the minister said. The U.S. and South Korea held joint air exercises last month. South Korea's F-35A, F-15K and US F-16 fighters, along with US B-1B bombers, were deployed in the drills to show the two countries' defense capabilities and readiness Countries hold large-scale military exercises for more than 10 days.