SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea and the United States on Monday began their annual joint military exercises, but they paused live-fire training while Seoul investigates how two of its fighter jets mistakenly bombed a civilian area during a warm-up drill last week.

North Korea launched several ballistic missiles toward the Yellow Sea on Monday afternoon, Seoul's military said, on the first day of a large-scale joint U.S-South Korea military exercise on the Peninsula.

North Korea on Monday condemned joint U.S.-South Korean military drills as a "provocative act," warning of the danger of sparking war with "an accidental single shot," days after Seoul's air force mistakenly bombed a village on its own territory.