North Korea again urged South Korea Monday to suspend its ongoing large-scale military drill, claiming that the exercise has sent inter-Korean ties plunging into the worst crisis.

The Hoguk defense exercise involving some 330,000 troops has been under way since last Monday with the aim of bolstering its defense posture against growing North Korean threats. The 12-day drill is the largest ever in terms of scale.

Calling the exercise "the intensive maneuver to destroy the inter-Korean relations," the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North's Workers' Party of Korea, said that it is the latest in a series of "the South's atrocious military provocations" that has "brought the worst crisis to the inter-Korean relations."

Accusing Seoul of blowing up the chance of holding high-level talks with the North, the communist country threatened that "the invaders will be burnt to death by the fire they have set if they continue to ignore our sincere efforts and launch fire."

The two Koreas had agreed to hold a high-level meeting in early November at the latest, but the communist country said it will not hold any dialogue with the South until it blocks activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

In a separate article, the Rodong Sinmun asserted that the South Korean military has launched "the largest-ever scale rehearsal for the intrusion into the North," while lying that the exercise is defensive.

North Korea has long opposed the Hoguk exercise, while the Seoul government has said the annual drills are to boost joint posture and coordination between the different branches of the military.

The Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S.

soldiers are stationed here to deter and counter potential threats from the communist country. (Yonhap)