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TOKYO: North Korea has accused the United States of threatening its sovereignty and using the Quad group – which consists of the US, Australia, India, and Japan – to interfere in its internal affairs.

A spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry published a speech on Thursday that said, “The Quad should stop the one-sided coercive act of trying to change the locality of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

The spokesman said the US “carried out a serious political provocation to deny the legitimate sovereign rights of our country” referring to a Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

“Relying on exclusive minority groups such as the Quad to interfere in the internal affairs of autonomous sovereign states, fueling confrontations and destabilizing international relations, the hegemonic behavior of the United States is a major risk factor that hinders regional and world peace and security.”

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry accused the US of “malicious behavior and hostility to Korea” while “trying to unilaterally change the current situation with force and coercive methods.” It reminded the US that North Korea was a nuclear-armed country “established by the supreme law of the state” that cannot be changed.

In other news, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry denounces US judicial authorities for indicting North Koreans on charges of “cybercrime,” which it said were unfounded and fabricated.

“This incident is an absurd slander and conspiracy to smear the image of our country as an extension of the hostility to Korea by successive US administrations,” it said.

The US has accused North Koreans of using fake identities to try and gain access to large companies in the United States and using fraud and cybercrimes to steal from them.

The North in turn accused the US of “turning cyberspace into a battlefield and using cyber issues as a political weapon to damage the image of other countries.”

The spokesman stated: “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has the legitimate right to thoroughly protect the safety and rights of our citizens from judicial enforcement for impure political purposes and to take appropriate and proportional response measures to pursue strict legal responsibility for external malicious actors.”