North Korea threatened Monday to shoot down any US spy plane that violated its airspace and denounced Washington's plans to deploy a nuclear missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.

A spokesman for North Korea's defense ministry said the United States had "intensified espionage activities beyond wartime levels" with "provocative" flights by US spy planes for eight consecutive days this month, and a reconnaissance plane violating its airspace over the East Sea "several times". .

"There is no guarantee that a shocking incident such as the shooting down of a US Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane in the East Sea of ​​Korea will not occur," the official KCNA news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

The spokesman referred to previous incidents when Pyongyang shot down a US plane, warning that the United States would pay the price for its "feverishly organized" aerial espionage.

The statement also criticized the planned deployment of US strategic nuclear assets on the Korean Peninsula, considering it "the most blatant nuclear blackmail" of North Korea, adding that it poses a serious threat to regional and global security.

"The current situation clearly proves that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is getting closer to the threshold of a nuclear conflict due to the US' provocative military activities," the statement added.

Washington announced in April its intention to send a nuclear-armed ballistic submarine on a visit to a South Korean port decades ago, without specifying a date.

North Korea has conducted several missile launches this year in breach of sanctions, including testing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, and in May it tried to put a military spy satellite into orbit.

In response, South Korean President Yoon Sok-yol announced enhanced defense cooperation with Washington, and organized joint military exercises with advanced stealth aircraft and advanced US strategic assets.

Yoon will attend a NATO summit in Lithuania this week, seeking to enhance cooperation with NATO members on North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats, his office said.