North Korea warns US of ‘retaliatory strikes’

North Korea urged the US to stop its various military drills, warning the country of ‘retaliatory strikes’ if Washington commits ‘provocative acts.’ The North's National Defense Commission (NDC), chaired by leader Kim Jong-Un, said in a statement released on Saturday that Washington must remove its policy of hostility against Pyongyang if it seeks peace on both the Korean Peninsula and the "US mainland". A spokesman of the NDC was quoted as saying in the statement carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), "(The United States) must bear it in mind that reckless provocative acts would meet our retaliatory strikes and lead to an all-out war of justice for a final showdown with the United States." The statement added that North Korea stresses again that the US must "withdraw various measures aimed to isolate and strangulate us. Dependent upon this are... peace and security, not only on the Korean Peninsula but the US mainland as well". The remarks come after the US launched a two-day joint naval drill on Thursday with South Korea and Japan off the Southern coast of the peninsula. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, guided-missile ships, anti-submarine helicopters as well as early warning aircraft were involved in the military exercise. North Korea slammed the three-nation naval drill on Friday and threatened to "bury in the sea" the American aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, the NDS statement noted that "The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is an inalterable policy goal of the DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) government," but added the US should also totally remove its nuclear threats against Pyongyang. Washington must stop the "constant nuclear blackmails" and lift sanctions against North Korea, the statement said. The six-party talks, involving North Korea, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, stalled in 2009 when Pyongyang walked out in protest against a new round of UN sanctions over a nuclear test. North Korea says it is developing a nuclear arsenal in an effort to protect itself from the US military, which occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft which are able to carry atomic weapons.