North Korea says it will use its "nuclear deterrent" in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend. Pyongyang was ready to launch a "retaliatory sacred war", the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, quoting defence officials.Tensions between the two Koreas have been high since the sinking of a South Korean warship in March. An international investigation said the ship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo, a claim strongly denied by Pyongyang.
"All these war manoeuvres are nothing but outright provocations aimed to stifle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] by force of arms," KCNA reported the powerful National Defence Commission as saying. "The army and people of the DPRK will start a retaliatory sacred war of their own style based on nuclear deterrent any time necessary in order to counter the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet forces deliberately pushing the situation to the brink of a war."
In response, the White House said it was not interested in a "war of words" with North Korea. State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the US wanted "more constructive action and fewer provocative words" from Pyongyang.
The North had already promised a physical response to the military exercises during an Asian regional security forum in Vietnam. North Korea's delegation spokesman at the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) Regional Forum (ARF) said the exercises were an example of 19th century "gunboat diplomacy".
"It is a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole," he said.