The 39th Army, a major Chinese military unit that would be deployed to the Korean Peninsula in a war, carried out an emergency mobilization drill near the North Korean border recently, the official CCTV reported on Saturday.

The drill comes amid signs that the North is preparing for a fourth nuclear test, and pundits speculated that it was a warning to the North and other neighboring countries to tread carefully.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman last Thursday said, "China will never allow a war or chaos to occur on its doorstep."

The 39th Army under the Shenyang Military Region mobilized tanks and attack helicopters, according to CCTV. In December last year, around the time when former North Korean eminence grise Jang Song-taek was executed, the 39th Army deployed some 3,000 soldiers in cold-weather exercises around Mt. Baekdu, which marks the border with North Korea.

The Chinese Navy, meanwhile, announced it will carry out a military mission in Bohai Bay opposite North Korea and in the West Sea from Sunday until May 4.

