N. Korea accuses US of planning nuke war

North Korea pledges not to wind up its nuclear weapons program, claiming the United States is plotting a nuclear attack on its soil.

The Korean peninsula is "on the brink of war because of a new war scheme by US hostile forces," the North's ruling party's newspaper Rodon Sinmun said in an editorial published Tuesday.

The editorial reiterated that Pyongyang will push ahead with its nuclear program to reinforce its deterrent against a new "nuclear war scenario for aggression".

"We are compelled to bolster our nuclear deterrent" as hostile forces have made clear their plan to occupy North Korea by force, it added.

The UN Security Council introduced a resolution against North Korea last month after the country carried out an illegal ballistic missile test.

The North reacted to the UN move by starting to reprocess spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon complex to make weapons-grade plutonium.

Pyongyang claims the missile put an experimental communication satellite into orbit while the US, South Korea and Japan maintain that it was a disguised missile test.