S. Korea monitoring N. Korea more closely

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PYONGYANG, North Korea, March 6 (UPI) -- North Korea's actions are being watched more closely for signs of provocation after it threatened to end the Korean war truce, South Korean officials said.

North Korea's military, in a statement Tuesday, protested the annual U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises and international efforts to issue new sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test by saying North Korea "will completely declare invalid" the armistice that ended the Korean conflict.

Ju Chul-ki, a senior presidential foreign affairs and security secretary to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, said Wednesday the government has taken control of the situation, Yonhap reported.

South Korea's ruling Saenuri Party demanded the North cease its provocative stance against the international community.

"As the Kim Jong Un regime has provided the source of all problems, it must also take responsibility for them," Saenuri spokesman Lee Sang-il said in a statement. "North Korea shouldn't be the one taking issue with the U.N. Security Council and the annual South Korea-U.S. military drills when it hasn't even expressed remorse or apologized for its nuclear test."

Lee also warned if North Korea maintains such actions, Kim's regime will "forever remain as a bad regime."

"If North Korea conducts a military provocation against us, we will respond strongly and firmly," he added.