North Korea's foreign minister said Monday that the U.S. had "declared war" on the isolated nation, pinning the blame on President Donald Trump's incendiary words days earlier while also threatening to shoot down U.S. bombers — even if they are not in the country's airspace.

The White House later in the day dismissed the claim as "absurd," but observers said the risk of miscalculation between the two nuclear-armed nations had hit a level unseen in recent years.

"The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country," North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said during a televised news conference in New York.