North Korea has issued a stark nuclear weapons warning, saying it will “counter the enemies’ strategic threat with our strategic means”.

This alarming statement was released by the chief of the Information Office at the DPRK Ministry of National Defence on Friday.

The North Korean regime accused the US and its allies of escalating military provocations, referring to the presence of a B-1B strategic bomber over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday and the test-firing of a Minuteman 3 ICBM at the Vandenberg Space Force Base the previous day.

Pyongyang criticised the US’s military posturing, claiming it shows the current administration’s unchanging ambition for supremacy through maintaining and updating military capabilities capable of launching a nuclear attack without prior warning.

The statement read: “Such military muscle-flexing of the US clearly show the invariable supremacy ambition of the present US administration to gain an overwhelming edge of strength through the maintenance and updating of military capabilities capable of mounting a nuclear attack on any country and region of the world without prior warning.”

“The DPRK’s solution to the military threat and challenge to the security being posed by the US is clear and consistent.

“The DPRK will counter the strategic threat of the U.S. and other enemies with strategic means and continue its responsible military activities to control and manage the unstable security environment on the Korean peninsula with powerful deterrence.”

North Korea said its “accelerated bolstering up” is a “realistic requirement for coping with the military threat of the US and its satellite countries”.

It added that the US’s behaviour “proves why the DPRK armed forces’ building up of the capability to fight a war with nuclear deterrence as a pivot is a just and inevitable option”.

Despite the ongoing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the US military will continue to conduct exercises with its South Korean and Japanese counterparts.

The White House has reiterated Trump’s commitment to achieving his denuclearization goal through a “mix of toughness and diplomacy.”