SEOUL: North Korea denounced Washington's deployment of a US naval strike group to the Korean Peninsula Tuesday, warning it was ready for "war" in a further escalation of tensions.
The US Navy strike group Carl Vinson cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend to head to the region in a show of force against growing threats from the North.
"This goes to prove that the US reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase," said a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry according to state-run KCNA news agency, in Pyongyang's first comment since the deployment.
"The DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US," he said, using the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (APP)