PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday accused the united States of trying to "maintain its colonial rule" in South Korea by helping the conservative forces remain in power.

Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the ruling Korean Workers' Party, said the United States is "displeased with the ever increasing possibility of the collapse of the conservative regime and regime change by the progressive pro-reform forces in South Korea."

"The reality is clear that the US remains unchanged in its wild ambition for maintaining its colonial rule over South Korea and gets ever more sly and vicious in its methods to quench the South Korean people's growing desire for independence," said the newspaper in a commentary.

Whenever South Korea faced a serious political crisis, "the US maintained its colonial rule by replacing its lackeys with others and setting up a new puppet regime," according to the newspaper.

"The colonial rule that divided the territory of Korea and the homogeneous Korean nation into two and inflicted unbearable pain upon the Koreans is bound to collapse under the united struggle of the Koreans in the north and the south and abroad," it said.

The situation on the Korean peninsula is getting tense as the United States is sending an aircraft carrier combat group to the waters near the DPRK. Washington says the deployment is in reaction to "provocations" by the DPRK.

Pyongyang has carried out a number of missile launches and nuclear tests, with the most recent being Wednesday's launch of a ballistic missile.