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North Korea rankles at Rubio’s ‘rogue state’ remark
Pyongyang’s foreign ministry also criticised Trump’s plan for an ‘Iron Dome’ missile shield, saying it risks ‘justifying an arms race’
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North Korea on Monday criticised US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling it a “rogue state”, saying his comments do not help US interests, state media KCNA said.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said the country will respond strongly to hostile US provocations, KCNA reported.
It is North Korea’s first criticism of the Trump administration since US President Donald Trump re-entered the White House on January 20, Yonhap news agency said.
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The ministry also condemned the United States’ new missile defence shield plan, saying that it makes it necessary for North Korea to strengthen its own military power, KCNA reported.
Trump last week signed an order that “mandated a process to develop an ‘American Iron Dome’”, a next-generation US missile defence shield against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missile and other forms of aerial attack.
“The idea of a new missile defence system, which recalls the spectre of the dangerous ‘Star Wars’ plan of … the Cold War, poses a risk of justifying an arms race under the pretext of coping with the ‘threat’ of adversaries, regardless of its feasibility,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said, according to KCNA.
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