Nuclear attack drill underway outside New York City amid rising tensions in North Korea

Federal authorities and emergency workers in northern New Jersey are in the midst of a 4-day nuclear attack drill.

The exercise, called Operation Gotham Shield, is designed to help rescue workers practice how they would evacuate victims from New York City if the region were subject to a nuclear attack.

Simulations, which began on Monday, include setting up makeshift emergency rooms, establishing a triage facility outside MetLife Stadium, where the NFL's Giants and Jets play, and running through radiation check and decontamination protocols.

The effort is overseen by numerous federal agencies including the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and FEMA.

SEE MORE: North Korea announces plans to conduct 'weekly' missile tests, warns of 'all out war'

Authorities assured the media and citizens that the drill is strictly routine and is in no way a response to any suspected nuclear threat.

But the escalating tensions between the North Korea and the United States caused concerns.

The country marked its leaders birthday with a massive military parade in which it showed off new weapons, but then followed the event with a failed missile test.

Officials in the country have promised to conduct weekly tests and threatened "all out war" if the United States does not cease what they have called aggressive tactics.

On Wednesday a North Korean government official gave a rare interview in which he promised that nuclear tests "never stop" as long as the US continued to commit so-called "acts of aggression."

"As long as America continues its hostile acts of aggression, we will never stop nuclear and missile tests," Sok Chol Won said, according to CNN.

The U.S. has also been conducting tests, launching an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile on April 26, according to military officials.