Relations between North Korea and Russia serve as a "powerful fortress" for preserving peace and deterring the military threats of "imperialists," a North Korean official said on Sunday.
Vice Foreign Minister Im Chon-il made the claim in a press statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit in Russia's Far East on September 13, Yonhap news agency reported.
"The US unjust and outrageous hostility toward the North Korea-Russia traditional friendly and cooperative relations and its attempt to interfere in them have gone beyond the red line," Im said.
"Recently, the US groundlessly termed the development of the good neighbourly relations between the two countries 'violation of resolutions' of the UN and 'violation of international law' in a bid to give the world public a false impression that the North Korea-Russia cooperation poses a 'threat' to global peace and security," he added.
"This is a vivid expression of the US hegemony-oriented way of thinking based on the Cold War-style confrontation logic."
The Vice Minister went on to say the "confrontational" moves of the US and the West have pushed North Korea-Russia relations to "the height of development," thus ensuring the "balance of the international mechanical structure and further improving the world strategic security environment".
"The North Korea-Russia relations are developing onto a new high stage, according to the strategic decision of the top leaders of the two countries," he said.
"They serve as a powerful fortress and strategic stronghold for preserving peace and for deterring the imperialists' high-handed and arbitrary practices, military threats and interference."
On the other hand, he claimed it is the US-led "alliance" that is becoming more and more "dangerous" as it threatens the security environment of independent sovereign states.
"The US-Japan-'South Korea' triangular military alliance, which has clearly betrayed hostility toward the North Korea and its neighbouring countries, and NATO, the mastermind of the Ukrainian crisis, are just the cancer-like entities jeopardising the international order based on the purpose and the principle of the UN Charter and posing a grave threat to global peace and security," he said.
N.Korea will never be recognised as nuclear-weapon state: S.Korea
North Korea will never be recognised as a nuclear-weapon state and its pursuit of nuclear weapons will only lead to more sanctions against the regime, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
The Ministry made the comments in response to a statement issued on Saturday by the North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, which claimed the North's possession of nuclear weapons was a legitimate exercise of sovereignty.
"The international community clearly bans North Korea's nuclear and missile development and provocations," the South Korean Ministry said in a statement.
"Regardless of North Korea's actions and claims, its possession of nuclear weapons will never be recognised, and the sanctions of the international community will further deepen."
In her statement, Choe criticized a UNSC meeting convened last week in response to Pyongyang's latest measure to bolster its nuclear force policy in its constitution, Yonhap news agency reported.
Under the attendance of leader Kim Jong-un last week, North Korea held a session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) and unanimously decided to "supplement Article 58 of Chapter 4 of the Socialist Constitution" to ensure the country's right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level.
Choe said North Korea strongly condemns the "unlawful and reckless actions of hostile forces, including the US, which label our country's legitimate exercise of sovereignty as 'provocation' and 'threat'".
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