The United States and South Korea yesterday began annual war games that North Korea calls a show of force aimed at making Pyongyang cave in to U.S. demands that it dismantle its nuclear weapons programs.

The military exercises called Ulchi Focus Lens are computer-simulated drills designed to test U.S. and South Korean readiness and coordination of command posts.North Korea regularly calls any joint exercises between the two allies preparations for war on the peninsula.

With six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs scheduled to resume the week of August 29, the North’s media was even more critical than usual. The exercises come “at a time when the U.S. war preparations have reached their final phase,” the official KCNA news agency said on Saturday.

The North’s army said earlier this month the drills were designed to “force the DPRK to accept the unjust demands raised by the U.S. at the six-party talks,” according to official media reports. DPRK is short for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. North Korea has insisted at the six-party talks on retaining the right to operate a civilian nuclear program. Washington wants Pyongyang to forswear all nuclear programs in return for energy aid and security guarantees.

The talks include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The drills will run until September 2, the U.S. and South Korean Combined Forces Command said in a statement.

The United States has about 32,000 troops on the Korean peninsula. U.S. officials have repeatedly said Washington has no intention of invading the North. South and North Korea are technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.