North Korea criticized the joint statement in which South Korea, the United States, and Japan pledged to strengthen their response to the malicious activities of North Korean information and communications technology (ICT) personnel, stating that it "strongly condemns and rejects" the statement.
The Korean Central News Agency stated on the 1st that Kim Chun-il, director of the Foreign Ministry's press office, claimed in a statement released the previous day that "the trilateral conspiracy of hostile forces is a political circus intended to damage our country's image through the international publicization of the baseless 'cyber threat theory' and to disguise their collective pressure campaign against North Korea."
He continued, stating that "the provocative actions of South Korea, the United States, and Japan, which aim to institutionalize and organize collective pressure against sovereign states and escalate geopolitical confrontations, are expanding into new areas," and emphasized that "the Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the actions of South Korea, the United States, and Japan that turn cyberspace, an area of common development for humanity, into a battleground targeting sovereign states and a stage for hostile propaganda."
Kim pointed out the fact that the diplomatic authorities of South Korea, the United States, and Japan held the "4th working-level meeting on responding to North Korean cyber threats" from the 27th to the 28th of last month, as well as discussions on North Korea's cyber threat issues at the Munich Security Conference in February and the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) foreign ministers' meeting in April this year.
He said, "The more the United States clings to outdated and malicious hostile acts against North Korea through strengthening cooperation with its follower states, the more unbridgeable distrust and animosity will build up between North Korea and the United States."