SEOUL, May 17 (AJP) -North Korea criticized the United States on Saturday for a "political provocation" after being re-designated as an "uncooperative state in combating terrorism," warning this would escalate "irreconcilable hostility" between the two countries.
North Korea's state-run news media, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), reported that North Korea's Foreign Ministry described the annual designation as a "unilateral and malicious designating campaign."
KCNA added that the anti-terrorism measures promoted by the U.S. serve as an excuse to interfere in other countries' internal affairs and overthrow their social systems, making those designated states targets of "hostile policy and military threat," actions it labeled as "the most heinous state-sponsored terrorism."
Pyongyang emphasized, "no one has asked the U.S. to lead international anti-terrorist efforts, nor has anyone invested it with such power."
Citing international laws adopted by the UN General Assembly, North Korea argued that U.S. actions amounted to "the most serious political violence as well as state-level terrorism."
North Korea vowed to take "effective and proper measures" against attempts to "impair and violate the dignity, sovereign rights and security interests" of the country.
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department listed North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela as countries not fully cooperating with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, restricting defense-related exports. North Korea has remained on this list continuously since 1997 and was separately re-designated as a state sponsor of terrorism in November 2017.
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