North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has blamed the United States for tensions on the peninsula and accused the South of hypocrisy, state media reported Tuesday.

Iran PressAsia: The “wrong judgment and acts” of the US meant instability could not be resolved, Kim Jong Un said in an address to the “Self-Defence 2021” display, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang is under multiple international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which have made rapid progress under Kim.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated it has no hostile intent towards Pyongyang, but Kim said: “Its behaviors provide us with no reason why North Korea should believe in them.

In 2017, it tested missiles that can reach the whole of the continental United States and carried out its most powerful nuclear explosion to date. Pyongyang says it needs its arsenal to protect itself against a US invasion.

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