(SINGAPORE) — The North Korean foreign minister has shot back at the U.S. over its warning to other countries against violating international sanctions on North Korea, saying recent moves by the U.S. are “alarming.”

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said at a Southeast Asian regional forum in Singapore on Saturday that the U.S. “is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against” North Korea. “However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK and showing the attitude to retreat even from declaring the end of the war — a very basic and primary step for providing peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Ri said, using an acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.
Ri Yong-ho, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Korea, says that his country will not start denuclearizing unless the United States takes reciprocal actions.