North Korea says it is closely monitoring moves by the United States and is fully prepared to respond to American aggression. 

In a statement released Friday by the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea's foreign ministry said Pyongyang is determined to "go to the end" if the U.S. hopes for a confrontation with the North.

The statement said Pyongyang will never be intimidated by U.S. threats. It cited the Trump administration's recent messages pressuring the North and the dispatch of an aircraft carrier strike group to waters near the Korean Peninsula.

The statement said such intimidation and blackmail can never frighten North Korea. It said the North is a peace-loving socialist nation, but it neither fears war nor wants to avoid it.

The statement also claimed the North has "access to a powerful nuclear deterrent to protect itself from the U.S. nuclear threat." 

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