KCNA / STR
North Korea has defended plans for a large-scale military parade scheduled for the day before the Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Pyongyang's annual military parade to mark the founding of its armed forces has taken place in April for 40 years.
From 2018, however, it has been changed to 8 February - when athletes will gather in Pyeongchang for the opening ceremony the following day.
North Korea said that no-one had the right to take issue with its plans.
A column in the ruling Workers' Party newspaper - the Rodong Sinmun - dismissed views that the event was provocative or designed to showcase the North's nuclear weapons.
Instead, the newspaper said, "it is a custom and very basic common sense that any country in the world takes the founding anniversary of its military very seriously and celebrates it with extravagant events," according to South Korea's Yonhap news.
Pyongyang previously held its main celebration of the military on 25 April.
The 2018 celebration, however, will mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Korean People's Army, which was established on 8 February 1948.
North Korea's military parades are usually large-scale affairs, often featuring thousands of troops and a display of missiles or other military hardware.
KCNA / STR
The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have been the subject of sudden co-operation between the two Korean nations.
The two countries will march under a unified banner at the event, and even field a joint women's ice hockey team.
But the diplomatic spat over the military parade threatens to cast a shadow over proceedings.
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US Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein told a press briefing earlier this week: "We would prefer that this parade not occur".
North Korea's government-operated information outlet KCNA released a statement saying that if South Korea and its allies continued criticism in the form of "reckless confrontational acts", it would "only bring about the consequences of souring the successful opening of the Winter Olympics".
The two countries dramatically improved their bilateral relations in January, reopening lines of communication and negotiating their joint presence at the Winter Olympics.
In January, South Korea's foreign minister told the BBC it would continue high-level talks with "clear eyes" - and that despite concerns over North Korea's true motives, "we have to make the most of it."
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