North Korea lashed out at the United States on Friday over the possible use of a naval blockade in the wake of its recent missile provocation, warning it would be tantamount to "war acts." 

The condemnation came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently mentioned the "right to interdict maritime traffic transporting goods" to and from the North after its Nov. 29 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the anywhere on the US mainland.
  
Talk of a possible maritime blockade has also emerged from academia, though Seoul has reiterated its opposition to any military options, including a preemptive strike, to address the nuclear standoff.

"The USmoves for sea blockade can never be tolerated as they constitute a wanton violation of the sovereignty and dignity of an independent state," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

"The US is trying to openly take the measure of sea blockade against the DPRK and strangle its economy in peace time. This is part of its scheme to escalate political and economic blockade against the DPRK which has lasted for decades," it added.

Citing the London treaty on the definition of invasion and UN General Assembly Resolution 3314, the KCNA claimed that blockade-type sanctions against a sovereign state in peace time is an "act of invasion, an illegal act."

"Now the US is trumpeting about sea blockade, not content with staging largest-ever nuclear war drills against the DPRK in the sea and air after shipping the strategic assets into the Korean peninsula," it said. "This is a hideous war criminal act to push the situation to an 'uncontrollable' catastrophic phase and to a touch-and-go phase of a war." (Yonhap)