International

North Korea has declared it is ready for “any mode of war desired by the US” in response to provocations and war mongering by Washington.

In a statement, North Korea warned of “catastrophic consequences” in response to any further provocations by the US, days after a US navy battle group was sent to waters off the Korean peninsula.

“We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying. “(North Korea) is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US.”

The spokesman cited Washington’s refusal to rule out a pre-emptive strike against North Korean missile sites as justification for its nuclear program.

“The prevailing grave situation proves once again that (North Korea) was entirely just when it increased in every way its military capabilities for self-defense and pre-emptive attack with a nuclear force as a pivot,” the spokesman said, according to KCNA.

“We will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms.”

Over 28,500 US troops, sailors, airmen and Marines in South Korea are a major source of tensions in the region and a pointer to Washington’s policy of provoking other countries in the region especially North Korea.

Meanwhile, China on Monday called for relevant parties to exercise restraint and not do anything that escalates tensions in the region, a spokesperson said when talking about situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily briefing that China has closely followed the situation on the peninsula, adding "under the current situation, all parties concerned should exercise restraint and not do anything that escalate tensions in the region."

Hua noted that China, to defuse the looming crisis on the Korean Peninsula, had proposed a "dual-track approach" to promote denuclearization of the Peninsula and establish a peace mechanism in parallel and a "suspension for suspension".

As a first step, the North Korea may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-South military exercises.

As the proposals were made in a reasonable, fair and objective way, China hopes all parties would seriously consider the proposal and offer constructive feedback, said Hua.