North Korea has condemned a recent joint military exercise by South Korea, the United States and Japan, saying that such drills show the relationship among the three nations has developed into the "Asian version of NATO."

In a statement carried by the North's state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday, the North Korean foreign ministry said that the North strongly condemns South Korea, the United States and Japan for repeating reckless and provocative military acts against North Korea and sternly warns of the fatal consequences of the acts. 

The ministry also said that Pyongyang will not ignore the strengthening of a military bloc led by the United States and its allies and will protect regional peace with an aggressive and overwhelming response.

The criticism comes after South Korea, the United States and Japan staged the first-ever combined multi-domain exercise, dubbed "Freedom Edge," in international waters south of Jeju Island from Wednesday to Saturday.

The name of the training was derived from Seoul and Washington's combined "Freedom Shield" exercise and Washington and Tokyo's "Keen Edge" training.

The exercise was devised as the leaders of the three nations agreed to hold an annual trilateral multi-domain exercise on a regular basis at the three-way summit held at Camp David last August in joint efforts to deter the North's evolving nuclear and missile threats.