North Korea vows response to US arms sale to Seoul

North Korea condemned US plans to supply South Korea with tactical missiles and to fund human rights monitoring projects, saying on Thursday that it would make a “serious, immediate and powerful response”.

The US Department of State said on Friday it had approved the possible sale of AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II missiles and related equipment to South Korea at an estimated total cost of $125 million.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said Pyongyang “cannot overlook” the effect of the weapons sale on the regional security environment.

The statement also criticised Washington's plans to provide millions of dollars for programmes related to human rights and the flow of information into North Korea.

The Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor announced last week an open competition for organisations to document rights abuses in North Korea and to “challenge the DPRK's information monopoly”.

North Korea described the US measures as hostile acts and security threats aimed at creating instability in its system.

US President Donald Trump has recently made overtures to Pyongyang, including scaling back joint military drills with South Korea, but North Korea has so far given a cool response.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 war, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.