Pyongyang has rebuffed Washington’s call for talks to ease the recent escalation in tensions on the Korean peninsula, and accused the US of portraying it as an aggressor while threatening North Korea with nuclear weapons.

During a visit to South Korea last Friday, US secretary of state John Kerry said the Obama administration was willing to talk to North Korea, while emphasising that Pyongyang must show an intention to abide by previous commitments to suspend its nuclear programme.

Late on Tuesday, North Korean state media quoted a foreign ministry official saying that Mr Kerry’s remarks were “a crafty ploy to evade the blame for the tension on the eve of a war”, and that Pyongyang could only engage in “genuine dialogue” once it had developed its own nuclear deterrent.