TOKYO: North Korea says “military provocations” by the United States and its allies have become “worse” since the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

The Director of the Ministry of National Defense of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cited a recent “provocative joint air exercise with South Korea,” featuring B1-B bombers, missile tests in the Pacific Ocean and troop movements near the DMZ that separates the North from South Korea.

These actions, he emphasized, “show the unchanging hegemonic ambition of the current US government, which seeks to dominate through the maintenance and renewal of military power.”

The statement said that America’s “cursing” at the North’s nuclear weapons reflects “the typical Yankee-style arrogance, shamelessness and robbery-like double standards of the United States.” 

The weapons are a means of self-defense to safeguard national sovereignty and regional security to address the military threat of the United States and its followers, the statement said.

“The adventuristic military delusions of the United States are intensifying, and the military confrontation attempts of hostile forces are becoming even more blatant,” it added, stating that the North’s nuclear deterrence “is a legitimate and indispensable choice.”

On Monday, the Director of the Foreign Policy Office of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced the holding of a meeting by the “Multinational Sanctions Monitoring Team” in Washington, stating that the team was “completely illegal in the name and purpose of its existence. It’s just a criminal group.”

“The barbaric sanctions of the United States have become a decisive factor that has made us more perfectly able to learn how to survive, stand on our own and strengthen in the harshest external circumstances,” the Director said. 

“We will not remain silent about the provocative acts of the United States and its followers who try to violate our legitimate sovereign rights, and we will respond strongly with decisive action.”

“The illegal and lawless conspiracy of hostile forces to place sanctions against Korea will encourage our country’s action to protect sovereign rights, and their accomplices will surely pay a high price.”