North Korea blasted the United States for its recent joint training exercise with Japan which involved two long-range bombers being flown around the Korean Peninsula.

Pyongyang's criticism was made by the country's official Korean Central News Agency, which said that the U.S. forces sent a pair of B-52 strategic bombers to fly over the skies near South Korea last month. It added that planes belonging to the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force took part in the maneuvers that targeted North Korea, the media outlet claimed.

According to South Korean officials, the U.S. strategic bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam conducted flights in skies near the Korean Peninsula and Japan between June 13 and 20.

The B-52 Stratofortress, which can be armed with long-range nuclear air-to-ground missiles, took part in the flight along with other U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps units.

The KCNA then said the United States is the main culprit behind the looming nuclear war threat on the Korean Peninsula, saying the superpower has no right to talk about denuclearization.

It said that the U.S. used the B-52s to conduct a "nuclear bomb-dropping drill" on June 21, saying that the "nuclear maniacs"

in Washington worked out a scenario for a "precision air raid operation" against the nuclear and military facilities of North Korea.

North Korea said that "a formation of nuclear strategic bombers B-52H under the 8th Air Force of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces on Guam was busy with a nuclear bomb dropping drill in South Korea on June 17 under the pretext of the exercise for long-range flight and strike at strategic targets." (Yonhap)