North Korea is strongly protesting the Key Resolve joint military exercise between South Korea and the U.S. that kicked off Monday.

On Sunday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency quoted the North's military as calling the annual drill “preparation” for a plan to invade the North.

North Korea, in response, vowed to continue its halt of the denuclearization process and bolster its nuclear deterrent.

The North also said that it has the right to protect itself from the U.S. through deterrence and that the North will no longer be bound by the Korean War armistice and a standing nonaggression agreement.

The North said that as long as the war exercise continues, all military dialogue with the U.S. and South Korea will remain at a halt.

Eighteen-thousand U.S. troops are participating in this year's exercise, which aims to assess Korea's defensive posture and U.S. reinforcement capacity against a contingency on the Korean Peninsula. The drill ends March 18th.