ISTANBUL 

North Korea on Monday said the recent progress in its bilateral relations with Russia was its “sovereign” right and “foundation for regional stability.”

Pyongyang was reacting to the statement of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol who told the ongoing UN General Assembly in New York last week that any arms deal between North Korea and Russia would be tantamount to a “direct provocation” against Seoul.

“The development of friendship and cooperation among nations is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and the foundation for regional and global peace and stability,” Pyongyang-based KCNA (Korean Central News Agency) reported.

It charged Yoon of “malignantly” slandering the relations between Pyongyang and Moscow.

Referring to Russia’s war on Ukraine, Yoon had told the UN: “It is paradoxical that a permanent member of the UN Security Council…would wage war, invading another sovereign nation and receive arms and ammunition from a regime that blatantly violates UN Security Council resolutions.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returned to Pyongyang last week after taking a weeklong trip to Russia.

However, the KCNA alleged Yoon was “voluntarily acting as a servile trumpeter and loudspeaker for the US.”

“It is quite natural and normal for neighboring countries to keep close relations with each other, and there is no reason to call such practice to account,” it added.