North Korea on Monday accused the US of violating its airspace by conducting surveillance flights and warned that, while Pyongyang was exercising restraint, such flights may be shot down.

Provocative military actions by the US were bringing the Korean peninsula closer to a nuclear conflict, spokesperson of North Korea’s Ministry of National Defence said in a statement, according to the official KCNA news agency.

“There is no guarantee that such a shocking accident as the downing of the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane will not happen” in waters east of Korea, the spokesperson said.

The moves by the US to introduce strategic nuclear assets to the Korean peninsula is “the most undisguised nuclear blackmail” against North Korea and regional countries and presents a grave threat to peace, KCNA said.