TheUnited StatesandSouth KoreaMonday began their annual joint military exercises under the code name "Ulchi Freedom Guardian," which is set to last until Aug. 31 and will mobilize as many as 56,000 South Korean and 30,000 U.S. soldiers.

The joint drills are detrimental to the regional peace and stability, and may further complicate a deteriorated situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The calculation of the United States and South Korea apparently is to keep strategic pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which has shown a defiant attitude toward them and has not committed to abandon its nuclear programs.

However, peace can't be achieved through power. Such military maneuvers have usually triggered a backlash from the DPRK, and this time isn't an exception.

The DPRK's official news agency KCNA Sunday condemned the imminent South Korea-U.S. exercises for pushing the Korean Peninsula into a "touch-and-go" situation.

Kim Jong Un, supreme commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), has ordered that if the enemy dares to recklessly preempt firing with even a single shell drop on the DPRK territory, the KPA should lead the battle to a war for national reunification, according to the KCNA, meaning the military would occupy the whole continent.

Instead of promoting regional peace and helping realize Korean Peninsula denuclearization, the military exercises once again fanned regional tensions.

It has been widely accepted within the international community that the six-party talks are the best possible way to denuclearize the peninsula and install peace and stability between Pyongyang and Seoul and in northeastern Asia at large.

Easing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula serves the interests of all relevant parties, which should strengthen communication and coordination with each other, work together for peace and stability on the peninsula and create conditions for the earlier resumption of the six-party talks.

China has all along urged all related parties to exercise maximal restraint and do nothing that will put regional peace and stability in jeopardy.

The United States and South Korea should stop conducting any activities which may undermine regional peace and stability and making any moves that may irritate the DPRK.

The wise choice for the two countries, in order to solve regional disputes, is to take more discreet and responsible steps and merely resort to the means of peaceful and constructive negotiations.