North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday denounced an on-going joint military drill between South Korea and the United States, claiming such provocations are bringing the Korean Peninsula close to war.

The South Korea-US Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise is pushing the peninsula "to the brink of war," North Korean Ambassador to the UN Ja Song-nam said in a letter to the council's Malaysian president. He called for an emergency Security Council meeting to address the issue.

Seoul and Washington kicked off the annual two-week computerized military drill on Monday, mobilizing about 75,000 troops from the two sides. The annual drill aims to prepare the allies to better counter potential aggression from the North.

Ja claimed the US is gearing up for war by conducting the military drills with South Korea. 

The situation on the peninsula became unusually unstable with the US' deployment of strategic bombers in the region and the allies' decision to deploy a high-tech US defense system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, on the peninsula, he also said.

North Korea has repeatedly asked the UNSC to address joint South Korea-US military exercises, but the demand was dismissed without a valid reason, he noted.

If the UNSC rejects North Korea's call again, it constitutes the council's abandonment of its responsibility to maintain international peace, the officials quoted Ja's letter as saying.

It is North Korea's coherent position that it will annihilate the root cause of the US' possible nuclear war through its own nuclear deterrence, the letter said, adding that as long as aggressive joint military exercises are not stopped, there will be no peace, security or tension-easing in on the peninsula and the surrounding region. (Yonhap)