North Korea has warned that Britain "faces a miserable end" if it becomes involved in the joint US-South Korean military exercises presently taking place in the South.

British forces are not taking part in the present drills, although RAF Typhoons were involved in four days of exercises with their South Korean counterparts in November, while members of the Royal Tank Regiment also observed manoeuvres with South Korean units earlier in the year.

A statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday has denounced Washington and Seoul as "warmongers" for carrying out the "provocative Ulchi Freedom Guardian war exercises".

The state-run media outlet dismissed South Korea's insistence that the annual exercises are purely defensive and claimed "Formations of strategic bombers loaded with nuclear bombs are always ready for sortie".