North Korea on Tuesday threatened to build up its nuclear deterrence capabilities in the face of persistent provocations by the United States and South Korea. In an editorial published by the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’Party of Korea, the communist country defiantly said it would guard its nuclear weapons program. It claimed the country's nuclear capability is a "treasured sword" that can protect the Korean people from war. The report monitored in Seoul said that the deployment of nuclear powered aircraft carriers near the Korean Peninsula and large scale military drills, such as Key Resolve, can only be viewed as a dress rehearsal for invading the North. "As long as our enemies try to use nuclear weapons to invade the North, we have to do our best to build up our own defenses," he said. The daily, which reflects the views of the ruling elite, vowed the country will continue to pursue its goal of simultaneously pushing forward economic construction and the building of its nuclear force. The latest drum-beating comes after the North on Monday claimed that Washington's call for a nuclear-free world was a lie and that the only reason it acquired nuclear weapons in the first place was in response to threats posed by the United States and South Korea. The country tested it first nuclear weapon in 2006 and conducted two other tests in 2009 and February of this year.