"The situation prevailing on the Korean Peninsula is so tense that a nuclear war may break out due to the frantic war drills of the USA imperialists and their vassal forces for aggression", Gen. Pak Yong Sik told a meeting of thousands of senior military and civilian officials.
The U.S. navy destroyer, the USS Wayne E. Meyer, began maritime exercises with a South Korean destroyer in the Yellow Sea, west of the Korean Peninsula, Tuesday.
North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills and a us guided-missile submarine arrived in South Korea on Tuesday, as the Trump administration prepared an extraordinary White House briefing for senators on the escalating nuclear threat. He said China opposes "war and unrest" on the Korean Peninsula.
The comments came after North Korea on Sunday said its military could sink the US aircraft carrier that President Trump is sending to the region "with a single strike".
The statement said that Seoul and Washington have been pushing to get THAAD working soon to cope with North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats.
The United States and South Korea agreed past year to deploy THAAD to counter the growing threat from the North.
Relations between North Korea and the US and South Korea have deteriorated in recent months, as the rhetoric and military posturing on both sides has increased.
President Donald Trump also has warned that all options including military strikes are on the table as he's determined to stop Pyongyang from achieving its stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the US mainland.
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On Wednesday, the White House will hold a briefing on the North Korea situation for all 100 USA senators.
Trump on Monday urged the UN Security Council to consider stronger sanctions against Pyongyang, and United States senators will be briefed on North Korea at the White House on Wednesday. The South's Yonhap news agency cited a government source as saying the exercise was the North's "largest ever" and presumed to have been overseen by leader Kim Jong-Un.
A CNN team in North Korea said citizens in the streets of Pyongyang were celebrating Armed Forces Day, with no visible signs of tension. North Korea announced earlier this month it would continue to dedicate about 16 percent of its national budget to defense.
Donald Trump triggered speculation he was planning a response in the event of another nuclear test by Pyongyang when he made hastily scheduled calls to Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and China's President, Xi Jinping, over the weekend.
This action could provoke Washington, which has indicated that it is considering launching pre-emptive attacks against the hermit state.
North Korean military personnel salute toward the statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il at Mansudae Hill in Pyongyang on April 25, 2017.
Kim, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, told reporters after the meeting, "We agreed to take strong punitive measures that North Korea will not be able to endure should it fail to halt strategic provocations despite our warnings", without further elaborating on the details.
"The panel of experts were skeptical, however, that China will exert economic pressure against North Korea to change its behavior". It has marked such dates in the past with displays of its military capabilities.
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