The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened the Trump administration with retaliatory action for stepping up "provocations" with the deployment of a US aircraft carrier to South Korea.
The warning from Kim Yo Jong, a powerful official in her brother's regime, implies North Korea will likely ramp up weapons testing activities and maintain its confrontational posture against the US.
In a statement carried by state media, she accused the US of showing "its most hostile and confrontational will" to North Korea.
It follows the deployments of the USS Carl Vinson and other powerful US military assets this week, as well as joint US-South Korean military drills this year.
She said her country would deliver a "threatening" response to the arrival of the US aircraft carrier in the region which she condemned as the "confrontation hysteria of the US and its stooges".
"The DPRK is also planning to carefully examine the option for increasing the actions threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level to cope with the fact that the deployment of US strategic assets in the Korean Peninsula has become a vicious habit and adversely affects the security of the DPRK," she said, using the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Observers and experts said the statement suggests North Korea may test launch powerful missiles designed to strike the US mainland or American military bases in the region.
The USS Carl Vinson and its strike group arrived at the South Korean port of Busan on Sunday, the latest temporary deployment of a US strategic asset.
The move aimed to illustrate the strength of the US-South Korean military alliance in the face of North Korean threats.
The US carrier's arrival came four days after North Korea conducted cruise missile tests - its fourth missile launch event this year.
It comes despite US President Donald Trump saying he would contact Kim Jong Un to revive diplomacy.
North Korea has not responded to Mr Trump's comments.
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Mr Kim and Mr Trump met three times between 2018 and 2019 during the US president's first term in office to discuss the future of North Korea's nuclear programme.
Their high-stakes diplomacy eventually collapsed due to wrangling over US-led economic sanctions on North Korea.
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