SEOUL: North Korea on Sunday vowed tough action against the United States, accusing it of plotting to blow up statues of its founding leader in a bid to stir turmoil in the isolated communist state.

The warning comes just days after the North said it would “completely review” the nuclear issue, amid concerns that Pyongyang may be planning a third nuclear test following its failed rocket launch in April.

Pyongyang has recently increased hostility towards Seoul and Washington, accusing them of sending a spy to the country with a mission to blow up statues of Kim Il-Sung, adding that the plot amounted to a “war action”.

“(North Korea) has various types of strike means... powerful enough to render the US modern war means ineffective,” the country's National Defence Commission said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency. It vowed to launch a “powerful physical counter-offensive” against the United States, but did not elaborate on what that meant.—AFP