North Korea denounced the United States on Saturday over its recent redesignation as a country not cooperating fully with U.S. counterterrorism efforts, insisting that no area in which the two countries can cooperate exists.

Kwon Jong-gun, director-general of the department of U.S. affairs at the North’s foreign ministry, issued the criticism after the United States kept the North on its list of countries not fully cooperating with its counterterrorism efforts earlier this week.

“The DPRK and the U.S. are definitely in hostile relations, and it can be said there exists no field of cooperation between the DPRK and the U.S.,” said Kwon in an English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kwon accused the U.S. anti-terrorist efforts of being aimed at interfering with the internal affairs of other countries, claiming that such efforts give rise to various terrorist groups, acco
rding to the KCNA.

“We remind the U.S. once again that we have neither intention nor interest in cooperation with the U.S. in its ‘efforts against terrorism’ exclusively used as a tool for interference and aggression on other sovereign states,” Kwon said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department kept North Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela on its annual list of countries not fully cooperating with its counterterrorism efforts. North Korea has been on the list since 1997.

Source: Yonhap News Agency