North Korea warned Wednesday that it will take military action should the United States deploy B-52 strategic bombers again on the peninsula.

"We are keeping close tabs on the activity of the B-52 strategic bomber," a spokesperson for the North's foreign ministry said, according to its official news agency KCNA.

If the bomber appears again over the Korean Peninsula, it won't be able to avoid a strong military response, added the unnamed spokesperson.

The U.S. sent B-52 bombers based on Guam to Korea for ongoing joint military drills, apparently in a show of firepower.

The B-52 Stratofortress, used since the 1950s, is capable of carrying out nuclear strikes.

U.S. military officials confirmed that the B-52s deployed in Korea for the exercises were part of the U.S. Pacific Command's Continuous Bomber Presence in the Pacific. They did not specify how many bombers were sent.

Pyongyang's foreign ministry claimed that it's an "intolerable provocation" to bring the means for a strategic nuclear strike onto the peninsula when it is on the brink of a war. (Yonhap News)