Relations between North Korea and Russia serve as a “powerful fortress” for preserving peace and deterring the military threats of “imperialists,” a North Korean official said Sunday.

Vice Foreign Minister Im Chon-il made the claim in a press statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit in Russia’s Far East on Sept. 13.

“The U.S. unjust and outrageous hostility toward the DPRK-Russia traditional friendly and cooperative relations and its attempt to interfere in them have gone beyond the red line,” Im said, referring to the North by the acronym of its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Recently, the U.S. groundlessly termed the development of the good neighborly relations between the two countries ‘violation of resolutions’ of the UN and ‘violation of international law’ in a bid to give the world public a false impression that the DPRK-Russia cooperation poses a ‘threat’ to global peace and security,” he continued. “This is a vivid expression of the U.S. hegemony-oriented way of thinking based on the Cold War-style confrontation logic.”

The vice minister went on to say the “confrontational” moves of the U.S. and the West have pushed North Korea-Russia relations to “the height of development,” thus ensuring the “balance of the international mechanical structure and further improving the world strategic security environment.”

“The DPRK-Russia relations are developing onto a new high stage, according to the strategic decision of the top leaders of the two countries,” he said. “They serve as a powerful fortress and strategic stronghold for preserving peace and for deterring the imperialists’ high-handed and arbitrary practices, military threats and interference.”

On the other hand, he claimed it is the U.S.-led “alliance” that is becoming more and more “dangerous” as it threatens the security environment of independent sovereign states.

“The U.S.-Japan-‘south Korea’ triangular military alliance, which has clearly betrayed hostility toward the DPRK and its neighboring countries, and NATO, the mastermind of the Ukrainian crisis, are just the cancer-like entities jeopardizing the international order based on the purpose and the principle of the UN Charter and posing a grave threat to global peace and security,” he said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency