North Korea’s new defense minister condemned the U.S., South Korea and Japan on Monday for pushing ahead with their trilateral military drills, warning that Pyongyang will respond to the adversarial moves with “more powerful and resolute action.”

In a statement issued through the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shortly before midnight, Kim Song Gi denounced the ongoing Freedom Edge exercise from Monday to Friday as a “provocative” U.S.-led effort to target the DPRK under the pretext of countering North Korea’s “nuclear and missile threats.”

The statement mirrors past denunciations by Pyongyang of joint exercises involving the U.S. and its