By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s state media accused the United States on Friday of double standards over military activities and pursuing a hostile policy towards Pyongyang that was hampering the restart of talks on the country’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

After North Korea and South Korea test-fired ballistic missiles, this is just the latest step in an arms race where both countries have been developing more advanced weapons.

Washington denounced the North Korean missile test and its subsequent test of what experts believe could be its first nuclear-capable cruise missile – but didn’t mention Seoul’s submarine-launched missile (SLBM).

According to the KCNA news agency Kim Myong Chol was described by it as an international affairs analyst. He said that the United States has “stirred up a tremendous furore” in presenting North Korea’s actions as “threats against international peace and security”.

The United States referred to them as “armed provocations” that are timed and directed at specific targets. It also criticized those measures that fall within the bounds of our self-defence rights. Kim stated that this arrogant, self-righteous reaction is an illustrative example of American double-dealing.

Kim stated that today’s “high-handed” practices go beyond limits.

Although Kim is not well-known, KCNA often has carried comments under his name. Some South Korean media reports describe him as a Japan-based “unofficial spokesman for the North,” officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Washington, he said, was responsible for the unrest that has prevented the restart of negotiations to dismantle North Korea’s ballistic and nuclear missile arsenals.

Kim declared that, despite the fact that contacts and dialogs have been established now it is clear the U.S. will raise the double-dealing yardstick with which it would label our self-defence acts ‘threats to the world’s peace and its allies.”

If the U.S. does not vouch for its withdrawal from hostile policies toward DPRK, denuclearization cannot be offered.

Kim Yo Jong (the powerful sister to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) made similar comments on Wednesday. She lashed out against South Korea for criticizing the North’s “routine defense measures” and developing its missiles while praising them.

North Korea is steadily building its weapon systems. This raises the stakes of the talks that began in 2018 between Kim Jong Un, former U.S. president Donald Trump and has stalled ever since.