North Korea said Thursday it will take the "toughest reaction" to any US military action against it.
North Korea will "take the toughest reaction" to any military action by the US under the principle of "nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation," the North said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"If the US continues to introduce strategic assets into the Korean peninsula and its surrounding area, the DPRK will make clearer its deterring activities," it read.
North Korea also conveyed it is not interested in any dialogue with the US as long as Washington pursues a "hostile policy" toward the North, the KCNA said.
A spokesman at the North's Foreign Ministry said the United States has been driving the security situation on the peninsula toward an "extreme red-line" and is pushing to spur further tensions through joint military drills of larger scale and scope with South Korea.
Hours earlier, South Korea and the US staged combined air drills, involving B-1B strategic bombers, as well as F-22 and F-35B stealth fighters, from the US Air Force.
North Korea launched around 70 ballistic missiles last year alone, the most in a single year, amid persistent speculation it may conduct a nuclear test in the near future.
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