North Korea Condemns US Missile Sale to South Korea

North Korea's Foreign Ministry has condemned the US decision to approve the sale of advanced air-to-air missiles and related equipment to South Korea, warning that the move would exacerbate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the ministry's director-general for foreign policy said military cooperation between Washington and Seoul was "systematically strengthened" despite what he described as international concerns about rising tensions on and around the peninsula.

"US arms exports are war exports", the official said, adding that North Korea would continue to strengthen its self-defense deterrence capability to maintain the regional balance of power.

KCNA also criticized South Korean President Lee Jae Myung for a joint statement with European Union leaders during his visit to Europe, in which North Korea's status as a nuclear weapons state and its military cooperation with Russia were described as "illegal."

Pyongyang said the statement was a violation of North Korean sovereignty and that South Korea had shown there could be no peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas. North Korea would continue to regard the south of the peninsula as a hostile state, it added.

(reuters, luc)