The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday denounced the planned U.S.-South Korean military exercises as "a nuclear war rehearsal" and provocation to the North.

"This is an unpardonable grave military provocation to the sovereignty of the DPRK and a wanton challenge to the international community's desire for peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula," said the official KCNA news agency in a commentary.

The war games code-named "Key Resolve" are a nuclear war rehearsal for aggression on the DPRK aimed to occupy the whole of the Korean Peninsula by force, said the commentary.

It warned that the exercises scheduled for February will harm inter-Korean relations and drive the tension of the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.

More intolerable is the fact the war games are to be held when the people of the DPRK are still mourning the death of their late leader Kim Jong Il, said the commentary.

"The army and people of the DPRK will mercilessly punish those gangsters who rush into a house of mourning with flaming torch of aggression," it said.