THE North Korea threatened on Monday to shoot down “US spy planes if they violate its airspace”, while condemning the US decision to deploy a nuclear-tipped missile submarine in the area of ​​the Korean Peninsula.

According to a North Korean Defense Ministry spokesman, the US has “intensified its spying activities above the level of war”: he referred to numerous flights of US intelligence-gathering aircraft in July, which he described as “provocative”, for eight consecutive days.

Reconnaissance aircraft, he insisted, had “repeatedly” violated North Korea’s airspace over the East Sea, or Sea of ​​Japan.

In the press release released and relayed by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, the spokesman warned against the risk of an “accident” that this activity could cause, as well as the “downing” of a US spy plane.

The spokesman referred to previous incidents in which Pyongyang had shot down US planes, and warned Washington that its spying activity will have consequences.

The statement also condemns the planned US deployment of strategic assets in South Korea; Pyongyang calls it “blatant nuclear blackmail” by Seoul and a serious threat to regional and global security.

Washington, according to a declaration co-signed in April with Seoul, will send a submarine with nuclear missiles to dock in South Korea for the first time in decades, without specifying a date.

The relationship between the two Koreas is at its nadir.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year called his country’s nuclear status “irreversible” and called for increased weapons production, especially tactical nuclear weapons.

reacting, Seoul and Washington they interpreted Pyongyang as exposing itself to the risk of retaliatory nuclear strikes that would spell its “end” if its government decided to use nuclear weapons against them.

North Korea has continued its weapons tests this year in defiance of international sanctions, notably launching the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles in its arsenal.