Military helicopters are parked at the U.S. Forces Korea's Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, March 9. Yonhap

North Korea on Monday denounced joint military drills by South Korea and the United States as a "dangerous provocative act," as the allies were set to begin their annual joint drills.

The warning was issued by the North Korean foreign ministry in a statement dated Sunday, a day before South Korea and the U.S. were set to begin their annual joint military exercise for an 11-day run, involving computer-simulated drills and on-field training.

The ministry accused the allies of "persistently staging the large-scale joint military exercises" despite North Korea's repeated warnings, adding the "random exercise of strength will result in aggravated security crisis."

"This is a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point," the statement said, as reported by the Korean Central News Agency.

This year's Freedom Shield marks the allies' first major military exercise since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

As part of the exercise, the two sides planned to stage 16 large-scale on-field drills, up from 10 last year, to strengthen their combined defense posture against North Korean threats and other challenges, including the regime's growing military cooperation with Russia.

The statement denounced the exercise as the U.S.' "military hysteria" and claimed it is "going on irrespective of the policy ambiguity inevitably witnessed with the regime change" and "proves the instinctive anti-DPRK practice of the U.S."

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the official name of the country.

"The reckless action and unreasonable choice of the U.S. seeking to 'solemnly' play the first movement of a war symphony through the largest-ever military provocation this year will act as 'minus' to the U.S. security," the foreign ministry warned.

Such joint drills also compel North Korea to become "the most thoroughgoing and more overwhelming in deterring the enemies' various" nuclear war threats against its regime, the foreign ministry also said, vowing to "redouble its responsible efforts" to maintain peace on the peninsula.

"The U.S. should be mindful that its habitual hostile policy toward the DPRK, openly denying the DPRK's legitimate existence and victorious advance, will only add justification to the principle of toughest anti-U.S. counteraction ... and face the undesirable consequences," it said.

North Korea has often reacted furiously to such joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington, denouncing them as war rehearsals, despite the allies' asserting they are "defensive" in nature.

Last Friday, the North warned the allies would pay a "horrible price" for their joint military exercise, a day after the drills were announced. (Yonhap)