The United States has not declared war with North Korea and such a suggestion is "absurd," the White House said Monday.

"We have not declared war on North Korea, and frankly suggestion of that is absurd," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing, in response to the North's claim that U.S. President Donald Trump has declared war against the country.

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Sanders criticized North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho's remark earlier Monday in New York that Pyongyang has the right to shoot down U.S. strategic bombers even when they are not flying in North Korean airspace.

"It's never appropriate for a country to shoot down another country's aircraft when it's over international waters," she said.

Sanders said the United States continues to seek the "peaceful denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula.

To achieve the goal, the United States will apply "the most maximum economic and diplomatic pressures as possible at this point" on North Korea in partnership with other members of the international community, she said.

Separately, the Defense Department dismissed the North's threat to shoot down U.S. military planes, saying the United States has the right to fly, sail and operate around the world wherever international law allows.

"If North Korea does not stop their provocative actions, we'll make sure that we provide options to the president to deal with North Korea," Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning told reporters.

Citing the United States' "ironclad" alliances with Japan and South Korea, Manning reiterated that "all options are on the table to make sure that we safeguard our allies and partners and our homeland" from the rising missile and nuclear threats posed by Pyongyang.

"Our job as the Department of Defense is to make sure the president is provided military options," he said. "We have a deep arsenal of military options to provide the president so that he can then decide how he wants to deal with North Korea."