North Korea Threatens US With 'Final Doom'

North Korea has warned it will meet any aggression by the "gangster-like" US with conventional weapons, nuclear strikes and cyber warfare.

In a statement headlined "US imperialists will face final doom", the National Defence Commission (NDC), North Korea's top military organisation also ruled out face-to-face negotiations with Washington.

The rhetoric appears to be a reaction to US president Barack Obama last month describing North Korea as the "most cut-off nation on Earth" and speaking about the regime's eventual collapse.

Describing the Obama administration as a "cesspool", the NDC said the president's remarks were a threat to bring on North Korea's downfall.

"Since the gangster-like US imperialists are blaring that they will 'bring down' the DPRK (North Korea) ... the army and people of the DPRK cannot but officially notify the Obama administration ... that the DPRK has neither need nor willingness to sit at negotiating table with the US any longer," the statement said.

It added that the North was capable of bringing about the "final ruin of the US" with its "precision and diversified nuclear striking means".

North Korea is known to have a capable cyber warfare unit, which was blamed for the hacking of Sony Pictures' computer network over the production of The Interview.

The comedy, in which two journalists travel to the country to interview its leader Kim Jong-Un but are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him, caused a revival in tensions between North Korea and the West.

The statement came after reported discussions about the idea of reviving de-nuclearisation talks between Washington and Pyongyang broke down.

North Korea carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

It also comes weeks before the beginning of annual US-South Korea military exercises, which usually cause a surge in tensions in the divided peninsula.

North Korea claims these are rehearsals for an invasion, while South Korea and the US say they are purely defensive.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Washington's position had not changed and that it "continues to offer Pyongyang an improved bilateral relationship" provided it takes action on de-nuclearisation.