DPRK foreign minister lashes out at US policy toward Pyongyang

PYONGYANG - Ri Son-gwon, foreign minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), criticized the US policy toward Pyongyang on Friday, saying his country will build up more reliable force to cope with the long-term military threats from Washington.

Ri made the remarks on the two-year anniversary of the first DPRK-US summit in Singapore on June 12, 2018, during which the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump signed a joint statement.

In the joint statement, Trump committed to providing security guarantees to the DPRK, while Kim reaffirmed his commitment to completing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"What stands out is that the hope for improved DPRK-US relations - which was high in the air under the global spotlight two years ago - has now been shifted into despair characterized by spiraling deterioration and that even a slim ray of optimism for peace and prosperity on the Korean peninsula has faded away into a dark nightmare," Ri was quoted by the DPRK's state media Korean Central News Agency as saying.