North Korea warns it's ready for war with US as it criticises 'reckless' show of force
North Korea has warned that it is ready to fight a war with the US as it criticised the "reckless" decision to send battleships into nearby waters.
Pyongyang criticised the "outrageous" and "foolish" actions of Washington after it deployed the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its battle group to the region for annual war games with the rogue state's neighbour South Korea.
Foreign ministry officials said they were "ready to react to any kind of war that the US wants" according to reports on state television.
"We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions," added the ministry in a statement to the Korean Central News Agency.
It comes as US troops team up with South Korean forces for their annual joint training - which the North views as a dress rehearsal for invasion.
Tensions on the peninsula have been raised by the North's continued nuclear missile tests in violation of a UN resolution and increasingly combative US administration under Donald Trump.
The deployment of USS Carl Vinson to South China Sea is just one of several high-profile displays of US power in the region.
Donald Trump has said that the United States will act alone to eliminate the nuclear threat from North Korea if needs be.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also recently warned that any nation which violates international laws can expect a response in comments seemingly targeted at North Korea.
"If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken," Mr Tillerson told ABC's This Week.
That threat may be taken more seriously after the US staged an air strike on Syria in response to its alleged use of banned chemical weapons.
"The Trump administration is foolish enough to deploy one strategic striking means after another in South Korea," said a television news reader in the deeply isolated North Korean state.
"They are trumpeting about peace by force of arms,but North Korea remains unfazed."
President Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, described the decision to send the carrier group as "prudent."