On Tuesday, KCNA said Kim Jong called for a “more realistic and combative” war deterrent to oppose U.S. and South Korean aggression.

During an expanded Central Military Commission meeting on Monday, Kim made the statement to examine ways to bolster the country’s war deterrent to “cope with the intensifying activities of the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet traitors to launch a war of aggression,” KCNA said.

The allies’ combined military drills, which KCNA said were meant to prepare for “an all-out war,” have angered North Korea and compelled Pyongyang to consider “strong practical action,” including military options.

Kim ordered “raising speed” and “more realistic and aggressive” war deterrent, KCNA said.

The summit “addressed practical concerns and steps for machinery to prepare different military action ideas that no means and techniques of counteraction are accessible to the enemy,” it said.

Since March, South Korea and the U.S. have held springtime exercises, including air and sea drills with a U.S. aircraft carrier and B-1B and B-52 bombers and their first large-scale amphibious landing maneuvers in five years.

In recent weeks, North Korea has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, tested a nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, and unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads.

On Tuesday, Seoul’s unification minister Kwon Young-se called Pyongyang’s non-response on inter-Korean hotlines “irresponsible.”

When ties are tense, the North refuses to accept South Korean texts or daily check-in calls on the border hotlines.

“We express profound regret over North Korea’s unilateral and reckless attitude,” Kwon said at a news briefing.

Kwon also accused the North of utilizing South Korean assets left at a joint manufacturing park, which the North unilaterally closed in 2016 without authorization, and promised to investigate.

Seoul’s defense ministry said that the annual Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) will occur in Washington on Monday and Tuesday.

Joint responses to the North’s nuclear and missile threats and enhancing the U.S. nuclear umbrella were discussed.

Japan will attend trilateral defense talks on Friday. Last week, North Korea’s “malicious” cyber actions to fund its nuclear programs worried the three nations.

On Monday, Tokyo’s top cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno warned reporters that Pyongyang might conduct nuclear tests.