PYONGYANG, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday blasted a planned military drill by the United States and ROK, demanding that the two countries cancel the plan.

    "This is an extremely dangerous (case of) playing with fire, intended to ignite a war against the DPRK," said a spokesman of the Korean National Peace Committee (KNPC), quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

    "This is a dangerous development indicating their intention to further strain the situation on the Korean Peninsula," the spokesman added.

    "The U.S. and ROK authorities should immediately cancel their plan for the reckless joint military exercises as they will only push the situation on the Korean Peninsula to (an) extreme level of tension," he said.

    The exercise, known as Ulji Focus Lens 2006, is scheduled to take place from Aug. 21 until Sept. 1, involving 8,000 U.S. troops and an undisclosed number of ROK soldiers.

    It will be one of the two large-scale U.S.-ROK joint military exercises to be held this year.

    The U.S.-ROK Combined Forces Command described the exercise features computer-simulated war games conducted at command posts and will not include field maneuvers. Enditem