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USNS Washington Chambers conducts a replenishment-at-sea with Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex on Monday during RIMPAC 2026. North Korea on Friday denounced the exercise as a “war rehearsal.” Photo by Nate Wheeler/U.S. Navy

North Korea denounced Friday an ongoing U.S.-led multinational military exercise taking place in Hawaii, calling it a “war rehearsal” that will trigger a “chain of countermeasures” from countries in the region.

The North’s state media carried the criticism in an op-ed on the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), in which South Korea is leading the combined maritime component command this year as the first Asian country to do so.

“RIMPAC is not merely a routine exercise targeting a hypothetical adversary, but a blatant war rehearsal spearheaded by the U.S. and its followers to target regional states deemed primary obstacles to realizing its Asia-Pacific strategy,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

“The reckless behavior of these international hooligans is bound to trigger a chain of proportional countermeasures by regional countries to deter and manage the threat decisively,” it said.

RIMPAC began June 24 and is set to run through July 31, bringing together more than 25,000 personnel from 31 countries, including South Korea.

The KCNA noted the combined drills conducted by U.S. and South Korean marines aboard the U.S. Navy’s USS Essex amphibious assault ship. It also pointed to the U.S. nuclear-propelled USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, deployed for the exercise alongside what it called Washington’s “war vassals.”

“These facts clearly demonstrate which forces are shaking the very foundations of global peace and security and portend that an undesirable situation may soon arise on the Korean Peninsula and in the region,” it said.

“Strengthening the war deterrent … against the military challenges and threats of all hostile forces is a sovereign right that no one can block,” the state media said.

South Korea has deployed the Aegis destroyer Jeongjo the Great, a P-8 maritime patrol aircraft and the 3,000-ton submarine Dosan Ahn Chang-ho for this year’s exercise, among other assets.

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