After North Korea tested two projectiles recently, US President Joe Biden acted swiftly to call out the move by the US-adversary, which led to North Korean senior official labelling the condemnation as “encroachment” and an act of “provocation”, according to KCNA, a state-run media agency. 

The North Korean official assigned to oversee the test launch of the “tactical guided missile” on Thursday, Ri Pyong Chol said in a statement, “Such remarks from the US president are an undisguised encroachment on our state’s right to self-defence and provocation to it,” while responding to the American condemnation. 

The missile testing, which is known to be the first proactive move of North Korea on advancing its military capabilities since Biden took office, was called out by Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese PM.

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Following the launch, Biden labelled the test a violation of UN resolutions and advised the hermit state against ramping up military testing, warning that “there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly.”

Ri, in his statement, said the North expressed its “deep apprehension over the US chief executive faulting the regular testfire, exercise of our state’s right to self-defence, as the violation of UN ‘resolutions.'”

He also said that he regretted Biden revealing his “deep-seated hostility.”

Pyongyang has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to forward its objectives.

“I think that the new US administration obviously took its first step wrong,” Ri said in the statement, which KCNA reported was issued on Friday.

“If the US continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good,” he said, adding that North Korea was prepared to “continue to increase our most thoroughgoing and overwhelming military power”, reported AFP. 

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North Korea has been swiftly pushing it’s armed capabilities, which gained substantial momentum in 2017, when the country’s relations with the US took a hit, as former US President Donald Trump was engaged in a Twitter strife.

The recent missile testing is assumed to be in response to the US building up its foreign policy against Pyongyang after key members of the Biden administration held a diplomatic dialogue with the South Korean government. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken focused on the deconstruction of North Korea’s nuclear advancements and disarmament, reported AFP.