North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly signed an operational plan to launch a full-scale counterattack in protest of South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises currently under way.

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said Monday that Kim announced that he had signed the plan at a ceremony he attended with his wife, Ri Sol-ju, on Sunday. The event was held in celebration of the 52nd anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s military-first policy. Kim Jong-un reportedly said that there is a limit to the North’s patience regarding the South Korea-U.S. joint military drill.

Sunday’s ceremony was organized by the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Military Commission and the National Defense Commission.

Around last Friday, Kim visited the defense units on the North’s border islands in the Yellow Sea that led artillery attacks against South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010. During the visit, he told the units to stage a war for Korea’s unification if enemy forces "drop even one flame of fire" on North Korean territory.