North Korea accused South Korea, the United States and Japan on Monday of carrying out drills aimed at pre-emptively attacking the communist country, and threatened to take retaliatory actions in response.

The threat carried by North Korea's Rodong Sinmun newspaper came after the three regional partners conducted a joint three-day exercise from Jan. 20 to detect and track potential North Korean missile launches.

The recent missile alert exercise, the third of its kind carried by the three nations, was intended to tighten their combined capabilities to defend against North Korea's missile defense assets and mobilized Aegis-equipped warships.

"It is indisputable that (the exercise) is part of the chain building up military alliance among the US, Japan and the South Korean puppet government and is intended to attack our republic with a preemptive strike," the ruling party's mouthpiece said. "The missile alert exercise is apparently a very dangerous military misdeed designed to escalate confrontation on the Korean Peninsula."

The country will "take a series of continuous response measures" to safeguard regional peace and the country's autonomy and dignity if the US does not suspend the drills, the newspaper warned. (Yonhap)