North Korea's foreign ministry has warned it will meet any escalation with a matching response, issuing its first official statement this year ahead of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise — a joint US-South Korean military drill scheduled to run from Monday through 27 August. Pyongyang condemned the exercise as preparation for military confrontation, pointing to US characterisations of this year's drills as significantly different from those of the past five years. The warning follows two North Korean missile launches in the past week, consistent with Pyongyang's established pattern of weapons tests and denunciations timed to coincide with allied military exercises on the peninsula.