North Korea announced that it's viewing joint training exercise "Key Resolve," going on right now between the U.S. and South Korea, as a preemptive strike on its homeland.

Paula Hancocks at CNN reports Pyongyang is ready to go to war  and its KCNA news agency says "Hundreds of thousands of [North Korean] troops are poised for a war, carrying nuclear war equipment."

The drills began Monday in the waters where Pyongyang shelled a South Korean island in November 2010, and Kim Jong Un today ordered his troops to retaliate if "the enemy" crosses into the North's territorial waters.

Visiting troops in the area Kim Jong Un "ordered them to make a powerful retaliatory strike at the enemy, should the enemy intrude even 0.001 mm into the waters of the country where its sovereignty is exercised," KCNA reported.

The 2,100 U.S. troops involved in the drills are accustomed to these annual exercises and just as accustomed to the North's threats.

The current round of drills will be running until March 9 with a second set of exercises beginning on March 1 and running through the end of April.

The most recent nuclear talks between the North and the U.S. over Pyongyang's nuclear program ended Friday with no progress being made.

It was believed the North would be more receptive to requests about its program in exchange for some much needed food assistance.