ANKARA

North Korea on Monday condemned the US for shipping longer-range tactical missiles to Ukraine to use against Russia, denouncing Washington as a "harasser" of peace that has been "aggravating" the war by providing Kyiv with such weapons.

The US confirmed last week that it has sent a "significant" number of Army Tactical Missile Systems missiles to Ukraine for use inside the Ukrainian territory following Russia's use of North Korean ballistic missiles against Kyiv.

An unnamed director at the Foreign Military Affairs Department of North Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement that Washington cannot turn the tide of the war with such a "mean" policy, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Long-range missiles offered by the US will never tip the scale in favor of Ukraine on the battlefield but result in fanning the reckless confrontational hysteria of (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy puppet clique," read the English-language statement.

The official termed the delivery of missiles to Ukraine a bid "to tip the scales of the war."

"The US can never defeat the heroic Russian army and people with any latest weaponry or military support," the statement contended.

North Korea is among a few countries that have expressed its support for Russia in the war with Ukraine.

'Landmines installed inter-Korean road'

Neighboring South Korea has accused North Korea of installing landmines on an inter-Korean road within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates the two Koreas.

Citing an unnamed military official, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported that the South Korean military detected North Korea laying mines on the unpaved road inside the DMZ late last year near Arrowhead Hill in Cheorwon, 85 kilometers (53 miles) northeast of Seoul.

The path was created under a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement to connect the South and the North for joint efforts to excavate remains of those killed near the hill during the 1950-53 Korean War.