North Korea has slammed US officials' condemnation over its nuclear and missile programs, warning that Pyongyang will not avoid a war with the United States though it does not want one, Pyongyang's media report showed Thursday.
A spokesman at North Korea's foreign ministry said that bellicose remarks by ranking US officials against the North and ongoing large-scale aerial drills between Seoul and Washington indicate that the US is taking a "step-by-step" approach to provoke a war on the Korean Peninsula.
"We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it, and should the US miscalculate our patience and light the fuse for a nuclear war, we will surely make the US dearly pay the consequences with our mighty nuclear force which we have consistently strengthened," the Korean Central News Agency reported in English.
The threat came as South Korea and the US kicked off their five-day joint air force drills, named Vigilant ACE on Monday, with B-1B Lancer strategic bomber aircraft and F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets mobilized.