SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea blasted the upcoming Rimpac naval exercises off Hawai'i as a rehearsal for invasion.

The condemnation came in a statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, an organ of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.

"The U.S. talks about 'dialogue,' 'peace' and 'stability in Northeast Asia' but, in actuality, gets frantic in its preparations for a nuclear war," said the statement, disseminated Friday night by the North's Korean Central News Agency.

"The army and people of (North Korea) will ... decisively react against the reckless provocations of the aggressors with strong measures for self-defence," it said.

Rimpac, which is staged every two years, comes amid global jitters over indications that North Korea has been preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile that may reach as far as the U.S. Mainland.

The international community has been pressuring Pyongyang to back out of the test plans. The North's main allies, China and Russia, have also expressed concern.

North Korea has not said whether it is planning to test-fire a missile but said it has the right to do so.

The North remained defiant yesterday, saying Rimpac shows Washington's "loudmouthed" attempt to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is "nothing but a deceptive artifice to start a new war."

North Korea has long accused the U.S. of having hostile intentions toward it and looking for a chance to attack it.

"The U.S. can never flee from the responsibility for having beclouded the prospect of peaceful solution to the nuclear issue and the six-way talks," the statement said, adding that Washington has created a "very grave situation on the Korean Peninsula through its hostile policy toward (North Korea) and frantic war exercises against it."