North Korea says U.S. carrier groups raise nuclear war threat

UNITED NATIONS — North Korea warned Monday that the unprecedented deployment of three U.S. aircraft carrier groups “taking up a strike posture” around the Korean Peninsula is making it impossible to predict when nuclear war will break out.

North Korean U.N. Ambassador Ja Song Nam said in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres Monday that the joint military exercises with South Korea are creating “the worst ever situation prevailing in and around the Korean Peninsula.”

The Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas saw an unusual amount of action Monday, with an American man unsuccessfully attempting to cross into the North and a North Korean soldier successfully defecting to the South.