North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea after South Korea and the U.S. kicked off their first major joint military exercise of President Donald Trump’s second term.

In a statement issued via state media on Monday, the North Korean Foreign Ministry called the Freedom Shield drills "a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point."

North Korea unleashes deadly ballistic missile salvo into the sea as it makes chilling threats of conflict and US - South Korean troops go on high-alert during military drills