North Korea has strongly criticized the United States over what it calls “political and military provocations.” The statement came after the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson docked in the South Korean port city of Busan on March 2.

In a statement issued via state media on Monday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry called the Freedom Shield drills "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."

North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles off its west coast Monday, South Korea’s military said, as Pyongyang shows little sign of holding back from its missile testing following Donald Trump’s return to power.