South Korea and the United States will face "due punishment" if they continue to make military provocations along the tense inter-Korean border, North Korea warned Wednesday.

The mission of the Korean People's Army at the truce village of Panmunjom released an open letter disclosing what it called the gravity of military provocations waged by South Korea and the U.S. along the military demarcation line, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the prevailing situation in the zone has reached a brink of war against the DPRK," said the KCNA. The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

North Korea condemned South Korea for raising tension on the divided peninsula, citing Seoul's cross-border loudspeaker broadcasts carrying anti-North Korea messages.

"Psychological warfare being staged in the whole area along the (border) has reached an extreme pitch," it said, adding that Seoul is using anti-Pyongyang "loudspeaker propaganda" for more than 16 hours a day.

The North then warned that Seoul and Washington will certainly face due punishment as they are seeking to wage a second war against North Korea, the KCNA said.

In January, South Korea resumed anti-Pyongyang broadcasts in retaliation for the communist neighbor's fourth nuclear test.

Prior to that, the South restarted the broadcasts after an 11-year hiatus in August 2015, following the maiming of two South Korean soldiers by a land mine blast along the border blamed on North Korea. Seoul halted its broadcasts after the two Koreas reached a rare deal on defusing military tension on Aug. 25.

The North, meanwhile, maintains its development of nuclear weapons is a powerful deterrent against what it called Washington's hostile policy toward the communist country.