US military drills 'make war unavoidable': North Korea

North Korea says military drills by the US and South Korea have made the war a question of not if, but when.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits a local tire factory in Chagang Province on December 3 Source: AAP

Large joint drills by the US and South Korean militaries and US threats of a preemptive war against Pyongyang have made outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula 'an established fact', a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry says.

"The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?" the spokesman said late on Wednesday in a statement carried by its official KCNA news agency.

"We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it, and should the US miscalculate our patience and light the fuse for a nuclear war, we will surely make the US dearly pay the consequences with our mighty nuclear force which we have consistently strengthened."