NORTH KOREA hit out at the United States today, saying that its claim to want to reopen diplomatic talks was aimed at covering up “hostile acts.”

Pyongyang accused President Joe Biden of adopting an “outdated” approach after he criticised the North’s human rights situation.

The Foreign Ministry said the accusations were an insult to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, adding: “We have warned the US sufficiently that it will get hurt if it provokes us.”

Mr Biden used his first address to Congress on Wednesday to say that nuclear programmes in North Korea and Iran posed threats that would be addressed through “diplomacy and stern deterrence.”

But North Korean government spokesman Kwon Jong Gun argued that it was illogical for the US to describe its measures of legitimate self-defence as a threat.

“His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK, as it had been done by the US for over half a century,” he said.

Now that Mr Biden’s policy has become clear, North Korea “will be compelled to press for corresponding measures and with time the US will find itself in a very grave situation,” Mr Kwon added.

Historic talks initiated by the former US administration of Donald Trump in 2018 stalled without any real progress on denuclearisation of the peninsula.