North Korea has intensified its rhetoric against the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, an 11-day drill involving about 21,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, calling it proof of Washington and Seoul’s “will to ignite war”. During an 18 August inspection of the 5,000-ton destroyer Choe Hyon at Nampo, leader Kim Jong Un said the manoeuvres required Pyongyang to pursue the “rapid expansion of nuclearisation” of its forces. Tensions escalated further when Ko Jong-chol, vice chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff, claimed South Korean troops fired more than 10 warning shots with a 12.7-millimetre machine-gun at North Korean soldiers working on a border-reinforcement project on 19 August. In a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency on 22 August, Ko denounced the incident as a “premeditated and deliberate provocation” and warned of unspecified counter-measures unless such actions cease. Seoul has not confirmed the alleged gunfire. Pyongyang said it will permanently close its border with the South, installed two additional loudspeakers along the Demilitarised Zone and characterised the warning-shot episode as part of a broader pattern of hostility linked to the ongoing U.S.–ROK drills. The exchanges add to a year-long deterioration in inter-Korean relations after North Korea renounced past military-de-escalation agreements and accelerated fortification of the frontier.