'The more the U.S. hostile acts towards the DPRK grow, the stronger our countermeasures will become,' the nation's foreign ministry warned.
Faltering U.S.-North Korean relations have taken another turn for the worse after Pyongyang protested its characterization as a"rogue state" in a recent security report published by the Pentagon.
The secretive state"has developed an intercontinental ballistic missile intended to be capable of striking the continental United States with a nuclear or conventional payload," the report explained. But the North Korean foreign ministry took issue with the report's warnings."That the U.S. has called the [Democratic Republic of Korea], its dialogue partner, a 'rogue state' is a clear infringement upon the latter's sovereignty and dignity, and it is nothing less than adeclaration of confrontation," the ministry said, according to a Korean Central News Agency report published in English.
An unexpected thaw in U.S.-North Korean relations in 2018 allayed fears that the two nations may be sliding inextricably towards a military confrontation. A subsequent summit in Singapore produced little of concrete value, though President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un did sign a document expressing their desire to work towards denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and lift the crippling international sanctions on Pyongyang.