SEOUL, July 4 (AJP) - North Korea on Friday slammed the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad over its "coercive" demand for the isolated country's complete denuclearization, calling it a "provocation" that infringes on its sovereignty.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) accused the informal alliance, which was formed among Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. to counter China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region, of "recklessly interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state" and warned that "such acts will inevitably bring about grave consequences," quoting the foreign ministry.
The ministry claimed its nuclear-armed state "permanently fixed and irreversible," warning that it would not hesitate to take "self-defensive countermeasures" if provoked. It further threatened that the U.S. must be responsible for any negative consequences of its "malicious and hostile" intentions against the North.
The North's tirade came after the foreign ministers of the four countries met in Washington earlier this week and issued a joint statement condemning North Korea's continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, which violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
In their meeting chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Quad countries also reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
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