North Korea said Friday it had fired cruise missiles and claimed that ramped-up US-South Korean military drills "can be regarded as a declaration of war", News.Az reports citing AFP.

It came after the two allies conducted a tabletop exercise at the Pentagon focused on responses to a nuclear attack by Pyongyang.

North Korean forces held a "strategic cruise missile launching drill" in the early hours of Thursday, firing four Hwasal-2s, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Friday.

The exercise demonstrated North Korea's "deadly nuclear counterattack capability against the hostile forces", it said.

The defence ministry in Seoul questioned that description of the test, saying there was a difference between what was announced and what US and South Korean surveillance detected. It added that analysis was ongoing.

North Korea is not banned from firing cruise missiles under current UN sanctions, but the Thursday drill followed multiple weapons tests this week -- including an intercontinental ballistic missile -- which was condemned as "provocative" by the UN chief.

Pyongyang said that criticism was "unfair and unbalanced", and on Friday called on the global body -- which met this week to discuss the North Korean launches -- to "bitterly condemn" Seoul and Washington over their joint military exercises.

News.Az