North Korea steps up criticism of South Korea-US military drill

North Korea intensified its criticism of an ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise on Sunday, calling it Washington's attempt to "forcibly occupy the South."
   South Korea and the U.S. began their annual two-week joint war exercise, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG), on Monday to test and improve their joint defense posture against North Korea, with some 50,000 South Korean forces and 30,000 U.S. servicemen participating.
"The goal of the U.S. is to make the Korean Peninsula the biggest hot spot through a military provocation such as UFG and perpetuate its forced occupation of South Korea under the pretext of protecting peace," said the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North's ruling Workers' Party of Korea.