DPRK slams Washington for criticizing missile launches

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has condemned US President Joe Biden for "provocation" after he criticized its recent missile launches, saying the military tests were an exercise of its self-defense right, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday.

Ri Pyong-chol, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, made a statement on Friday, saying the recent test-fire of new-type tactical guided missiles was "an act tantamount to the exercise of the full-fledged right of a sovereign state for self-defense" as it was a process that had been undertaken to implement the goals of the policy on national defense science set forth by the party and the government to boost the defense capabilities of the country.

On Friday, the KCNA confirmed in a report that the DPRK test-fired two newly-developed tactical guided missiles on Thursday.

Ri's remarks were made a day after Biden said the DPRK's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles was in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and warned "there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly".

"We express our deep apprehension over the US chief executive faulting the regular test-fire, exercise of our state's right to self-defense, as the violation of UN 'resolutions' and openly revealing his deep-seated hostility toward the DPRK," Ri said.

"Such remarks from the US president are an undisguised encroachment on our state's right to self-defense and provocation to it," he stressed.

The senior official warned in his statement that "if the US continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good", and he promised that the DPRK "will continue to increase our most thoroughgoing and overwhelming military power".