North Korea criticized the United States on Tuesday for leading the international condemnation of its missile launches, saying it would never be daunted by such denunciation.

Last week, the United Nations Security Council issued a statement denouncing the communist nation’s launch of short-range ballistic missiles.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary that “it is absurd to take issue with strategic rockets, a fruit of Pyongyang’s defense industry.”

Under no circumstances would North Korea give up measures to bolster its self-defense readiness, including the firing of strategic rockets, development of nuclear capability and military drills, it added.

The KCNA also lambasted the U.S. dispatch of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, to a joint military exercise with South Korea, claiming it to be a nuclear threat.

The Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, argued peace and security on the peninsula are guaranteed by the North’s powerful military deterrent.

Pyongyang’s firm policy is to bolster its military capability for self-defense in every way and no one has the right to take issue with this, the newspaper said in an op-ed piece.

North Korea “values the dignity and sovereignty as its life and soul and will never pardon anyone who infringes upon them,” it said. (Yonhap)