North Korea on Monday denounced a recent South Korea-U.S. combined military exercise that integrates South Korea's conventional military capabilities with U.S. nuclear capabilities, saying strengthening the North's nuclear capabilities is "immutable" against such a backdrop. In a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Jong-sik, first vice department director of the Workers' Party of Korea's Central Committee, claimed the drill, named Iron Mace, was "the most hideous nuclear war rehearsal aimed at using nuclear weapons against the DPRK." DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. Iron Mace, he said, only proves "how just the DPRK is in its efforts for ceaselessly bolstering up its nuclear forces capable of thoroughly coping with such nuclear threats." South Korea and the U.S. conducted the tabletop exercise at the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters in Seoul from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 to deter North Korean threats. Kim also denounced other allied drills, including Hoguk and Freedom Flag, as well as Keen Sword,