Pyong Yong; After American diplomats pushed the UN to denounce recent weapons tests by the DPRK, North Korea issued a harsh response, warning that it would soon regard US military action close to its borders as a "declaration of war."

Kwon Jeong-geun, a senior foreign ministry official in charge of US affairs, released a statement on Friday to "strongly protest" a UN Security Council meeting that took place earlier this week and in which Washington proposed a resolution to condemn Pyongyang's most recent ballistic missile launches.

According to Kwon, such a move would be "clearly in violation of our state's right to self-defense," and he continued, "If the UN Security Council sincere intends to contribute to ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, it will have to condemn acts that escalate military tension, such as the deployment of strategic assets and significant joint military drills between the United States and South Korea."

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The official continued by saying that those actions have largely been "ignored" by the international community and threatened to take "strong countermeasures" if North Korea's concerns are not addressed.

US representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield criticised the Security Council at the UN meeting on Monday for what she called its alleged "lack of action" in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, calling it "dangerous" and "worse than shameful."

She pushed the group to pass a formal "presidential statement," which is not a legally binding resolution, to denounce the Saturday and Monday missile launches.

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The United States, South Korea, and Japan have conducted several rounds of military drills in response to the recent weapons tests. On Sunday, Washington and Seoul conducted joint air drills, which were followed by three-way naval drills in the Sea of Japan.

In the US capital on Wednesday, South Korean officials participated in a tabletop simulation during which Pyongyang claimed to have fired long-range missiles.

The military retaliation underscores the rise in tensions on the Korean Peninsula over the past year, which has seen North Korea conduct a record number of missile tests while also conducting a flurry of joint war games under the direction of the Pentagon.

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While Washington continues to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal, the DPRK has repeatedly criticised the drills as invasion rehearsals and claims its missile programme is for self-defense.