Pyongyang branded the US decision provocative and warned it would heighten tensions on the peninsula. Officials said they will boost defensive capabilities.<\/p>\n
North Korea condemned the U.S. decision to approve the sale of advanced air-launched missiles and related equipment to South Korea, warning that such a move would heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula, KCNA said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Director-General of the Foreign Policy Department said in a statement released by KCNA that military cooperation between Washington and Seoul is \u201csteadily intensifying\u201d despite international concerns about rising tensions on and around the peninsula.<\/p>\n
An official spokesperson noted that the U.S. approval of nearly $300 million under the Foreign Military Sales program for advanced air-launched missiles and related equipment for South Korea was the latest example of such cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe export of U.S. weapons is military export.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 official source<\/p>\n
North Korea regularly criticizes military cooperation between the United States and South Korea as preparation for war.<\/p>\n
KCNA also emphasizes that North Korea will continue to strengthen its defensive capabilities in order to maintain the balance of power in the region.<\/p>\n
Such statements underscore the lack of consensus on deepening military cooperation between the United States and its ally and indicate the enduring tension around regional security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pyongyang branded the US decision provocative and warned it would heighten tensions on the peninsula. Officials said they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29450,31,4437,154,34,29449,28542,29451],"class_list":["post-51393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-korea","tag-kcna-statement","tag-korea","tag-korean-peninsula-tensions","tag-news","tag-north-korea","tag-north-korea-us-missile-sale-south-korea-defense-korean-peninsula-tensions-kcna-statement","tag-south-korea-defense","tag-us-missile-sale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}