SEOUL, July 3: Pyongyang ratcheted up the rhetoric in its war of words with Washington by promising an ‘annihilating strike’ with its nuclear deterrent should the United States launch an attack, its media said on Monday.

Over the weekend, North Korea said it would bolster its deterrent in response to a US threat, marking the first time it has so specifically mentioned the subject since a crisis began over its suspected plans to test-fire a long-range missile.

“The army and people of the DPRK are now in full preparedness to answer a pre-emptive attack with a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war with a mighty nuclear deterrent,” its communist party newspaper said on Monday.

DPRK is short for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The report carried on the KCNA news agency said the US had increased tension by bringing new spy planes to the peninsula.

North Korea said in February last year it possessed nuclear weapons. It has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal several times since then in response to what it perceived as increased US threats.

US REACTION: North Korea’s vow to react with a nuclear strike if the United States launched an attack was ‘deeply hypothetical’, the White House said on Monday.

“It is a statement about what may happen if something that hasn’t happened, happened ... it is still deeply hypothetical,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

He reiterated that North Korea should resume talks stalled since November with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea over its nuclear program.

“The strong preference of the United States and the other parties in the six-party talks other than North Korea is for North Korea to rejoin the talks, to sit down at the table,” Mr Snow said. –AFP/Reuters