North Korea has issued a threat to the U.S., saying it will “counter the enemies’ strategic threat with our strategic means.”

The threat was made in a press statement issued by the chief of the Information Office at the DPRK Ministry of National Defense on Friday.

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Department of Defense, via email, for comment.

Why It Matters

Pyongyang has long cited defense cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea, including joint exercises, as a destabilizing force that justifies its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Washington and Seoul have formed an alliance under a mutual defense treaty and 28,500 U.S. military personnel are stationed in South Korea to deter aggression from North Korea. The allies have frequently conducted combined military exercises.

What To Know

North Korea said “the U.S. and its vassal forces are getting evermore pronounced in their military provocations,” citing the presence of a B-1B strategic bomber over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday and the test-firing of a Minuteman 3 ICBM at the Vandenberg Space Force Base the day before.

“Such military muscle-flexing of the U.S. clearly show the invariable supremacy ambition of the present U.S. administration to gain an overwhelming edge of strength through the maintenance and updating of military capabilities capable of mounting a nuclear attack on any country and region of the world without prior warning,” Pyongyang said.

It went on: “The typical Yankee-style arrogance and shameless and gangster-like double-standards logic of the U.S., which brands the DPRK’s nuclear deterrence for self-defence as an injustice means and places ‘legality’ and ‘regularity’ on former’s moves for bolstering up nuclear force for hegemony, can never work on the DPRK.

“The DPRK’s nuclear force is a means for legitimate defence to safeguard the national sovereignty and the security of the region.”

Pyongyang ended with: “The DPRK’s solution to the military threat and challenge to the security being posed by the U.S. is clear and consistent.

“The DPRK will counter the strategic threat of the U.S. and other enemies with strategic means and continue its responsible military activities to control and manage the unstable security environment on the Korean peninsula with powerful deterrence.”

What People Are Saying

The South Korean Defense Ministry said of the U.S.-South Korea joint aerial drill on Thursday: “The training was conducted to display the U.S. extended deterrence capabilities against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and bolster interoperability of South Korea-U.S. combined forces.”

The White House in January said that: the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea remains President Donald Trump‘s priority.

Pyongyang said that North Korea’s “accelerated bolstering up” is a “realistic requirement for coping with the military threat of the U.S. and its satellite countries, and that America’s behavior “proves why the DPRK armed forces’ building up of the capability to fight a war with nuclear deterrence as a pivot is a just and inevitable option.”

What Happens Next

The U.S. military will continue to conduct exercises with its South Korean and Japanese counterparts as tensions persist on the Korean Peninsula. The White House said Trump is committed to achieving his denuclearization goal by a “mix of toughness and diplomacy.”