North Korea said on Friday it would retaliate with "unprecedented nuclear strikes" if anyone attempts to provoke instability in the country.

The statement comes a week after South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported that analysts from South Korea, the United States and China were planning to meet in Beijing next month to discuss contingency plans in case of a potential collapse of the communist regime in Pyongyang.

"Those who seek to bring down the system in the (North), whether they play a main role or a passive role, will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army," the North's official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman for the N. Korean military.

Such warnings have become a routine as the North skillfully plays its "nuclear card" in attempts to stall the talks over the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to demand concessions from the international community.

In a previous statement on March 9, Pyongyang threatened to boost its nuclear capability in response to what it considered "continuing U.S. military threats and provocations," referring to joint annual exercises conducted by the U.S. and S. Korean military near its borders.

Meanwhile, concerns over stability of the reclusive regime, which possesses nuclear weapons, have deepened since the reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's ailing health surfaced in 2008 and severe food shortages hit the country following economic sanctions against Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests.

The six-party talks involving South Korea, China, the United States, Russia and Japan to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons came to a halt last April and prospects of their resumption have been unclear so far.