North Korea has warned that if South Korea and the United States continue undermining the regional strategic balance and intimidating neighboring countries, it will exercise its “essential rights” in response.

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) issued the threat in a commentary on Friday, claiming that the United States' reckless military moves that started at the beginning of this year, gravely threatening stability in and around the Korean Peninsula, are becoming more blatant as 2025 draws to a close.

The KCNA took issue with various U.S.-led military activities, including the South Korea-U.S. naval drills near Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, and the recent deployment of F-16 fighter jets to the Osan Air Base.

It also criticized the monthlong "Silent Shark" exercise in Guam and the U.S. Marines' new military position on Japan's Yonaguni island near the Taiwan Strait.

The KCNA said North Korea is prepared to counter the confrontation-oriented moves of enemy states and that all threats to the North’s security will become "direct targets."