A clear message. This Monday, July 10, Pyongyang is issuing a warning to the United States, threatening to shoot down any American spy planes that circulate in its airspace. A threat that follows the deployment of a ballistic missile submarine by Washington, near the Korean peninsula.

According to a spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of Defense, the United States has “intensified its espionage activities beyond wartime levels”, referring to American spy planes which carried out several flights in July, described as “provocateurs”, for eight consecutive days. A reconnaissance aircraft, he said, also “repeatedly” entered North Korea’s airspace over the Sea of ​​Japan.

In a statement quoted by the state news agency KCNA, the spokesperson warned of the risk of “accident” that this type of action could have caused, such as the “fall of the United States Air Force strategic reconnaissance aircraft” in the Sea of ​​Japan.

This same source also referred to previous incidents, during which Pyongyang has already shot down American planes. She also warned Washington that its espionage activities would not be without consequences.

The statement went on to condemn the planned US deployment of strategic assets to South Korea, which Pyongyang called “the least concealed nuclear blackmail” exerted on North Korea, and asserted that this posed a serious threat to regional and global security.

Washington, in accordance with a declaration signed in April with Seoul, had notably declared that a ballistic missile submarine would make its first docking in South Korea for decades, without specifying the date.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called Pyongyang’s nuclear power status “irreversible” last year, and called for increased development of armaments, including tactical nuclear weapons.

In response, Seoul and Washington pledged that Pyongyang would face a nuclear response and the “end” of its current government if it decided to use atomic weapons against them. This year, North Korea has conducted a series of weapons tests despite sanctions, including testing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles.