North Korea warns US over joint naval drill

North Korea warned the United States of "horrible disaster" on Tuesday as the isolated communist state put troops on alert against a joint naval drill involving a US aircraft carrier.

North Korean troops had been ordered to "keep themselves fully ready to promptly launch operations any time", a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said, in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The massive naval drill near the Korean peninsula is being staged by the United States, South Korea and Japan from Tuesday to Thursday and involves the nuclear-powered carrier USS George Washington.

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