North Korea denounced on Friday the U.S.'s recent calls on Myanmar to end the Southeast Asian country's ties with the communist North.
"After first demanding suspension of military ties, the U.S. now came to openly press Myanmar to end relations with us, branding us as a 'bad friend,'" the North's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman said in a dialogue reported by the state-run (North) Korean Central News Agency.
Denouncing the U.S.'s anti-North calls on Myanmar, the North said the "bad friend" title is better suited for the U.S.
In her September meetings with Myanmar President Thein Sein and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the U.S., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns over the country's alleged ties with North Korea.
Clinton also expressed the U.S.'s willingness to ease sanctions on Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, if the Southeast Asian nation comes clean on its suspected ties to North Korea.
"The U.S.'s hostile, oppressive policies toward North Korea have not changed a bit," the North Korean spokesman said in the dialogue with the state news agency.
Calling for a change in the U.S.'s stance toward the North, the spokesman also said, "If the U.S. sticks to its hostile, outdated anti-North policies, it would not be able to put up with (its presence) on the Korean Peninsula." (Yonhap)
