South Korea ? North Korea warned Tuesday that its military forces will respond if the U.N. Security Council questions or condemns the country over the sinking of a South Korean navy ship, which it vehemently denies.

At a rare news conference, North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Sin Son Ho demanded that a military investigation team from North Korea be permitted to go to the site of the sinking to verify the result of a South Korean probe “in an objective and scientific way,” which the South has refused to allow.

He said there is “a touch and go situation that a war may break out any time … on the Korean peninsula due to the reckless military maneuvers of South Korea,” which has accused the North of torpedoing the ship and is seeking U.N. action to punish it.