DPRK warns that US sea blockade could lead to war

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) will view any attempt by the US to impose a sea blockade as an act of war, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.

The threat came amid international efforts to defuse the nuclear standoff in the Korean Peninsula. The DPRK tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile on November 29. In September, the country tested a hydrogen bomb.

KCNA said the United States is working desperately to impose a maritime blockade by modifying phrases in a UN resolution on the nuclear issue while some hard-line American officials are calling for a sea blockade against Pyongyang.

The DPRK foreign ministry also warned that the current military drills by the US and the Republic of Korea are making war "inevitable."

"The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?" it said in a statement. "We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it."

United Nations political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman is currently in Pyongyang for a rare visit.

Feltman is the highest-level UN official to visit the DPRK since 2012. Reports said he met the country's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho on Thursday but no details about the meeting were given.

United Nations political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman (center) arrived in Pyongyang for talks on December 5. /Reuters Photo

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his US counterpart Rex Tillerson that the DPRK wanted direct talks with the US to seek guarantees on its security, something Moscow was ready to facilitate.

Lavrov said US' aggressive rhetoric is causing an unacceptable escalation in tension on the Korean Peninsula.

"We know that North Korea (DPRK) wants above all to talk to the United States about guarantees for its security. We are ready to support that, we are ready to take part in facilitating such negotiations,” Lavrov said on the sidelines of a conference in Vienna on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a bilateral meeting during a ministerial council of OSCE foreign ministers in Vienna, Austria, on Dec. 7. /Reuters Photo

China's foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Friday that China welcomes Russia's desire to facilitate talks and urged calm and dialogue.

"The tension between the US and the DPRK lies in the heart of the Korean Peninsula tension, and the two parties should have direct talks and seek to dissolve the tension," Geng told reporters during a daily briefing.

China has also been working towards building a communication channel for the two parties, he said.