ISLAMABAD / ISTANBUL

North Korean state-run media slammed a recent agreement between the US and South Korea that will allow Seoul to begin developing its first fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines, calling it a "declaration of confrontation."

"The fact that the US, ignoring the danger of a global nuclear arms race that would result from nuclear proliferation to non-nuclear states, approved South Korea's possession of nuclear submarines and then permitted uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing, thereby laying the foundation for North Korea to rise to the status of a ‘quasi-nuclear power,’ clearly demonstrates the US's dangerous confrontational tactics," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Tuesday.

KCNA said a joint fact sheet released by the White House following a meeting last month in South Korea between US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung once again established a policy of hostility and confrontation against North Korea.

According to the fact sheet released by the White House, during the meeting between Lee and Trump, the two leaders “reiterated their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK (North Korea) and peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

The state media added that the US and South Korea “have replaced the words of the ‘complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,’ which they touted for mere form's sake in the past, with the ones of the ‘complete denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).’”

It marked the first reaction from North Korea to the document that Seoul and Washington released on Friday.

It said the document clearly shows that the US and South Korean administrations are pursuing “open confrontation” against North Korea.

'No hostile' intent towards Pyongyang, says Seoul

Following Pyongyang’s latest reaction, South Korea's presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said that Seoul has no "hostile" intent toward Pyongyang.

"We will continue to work consistently toward easing inter-Korean tensions and rebuilding trust," Yonhap News Agency quoted Kang as saying.

Separately, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that a Korean Peninsula without nuclear weapons is an "imperative we must never abandon."

“Korea's top priority on the security front is to prevent war and ensure that the Korean Peninsula does not become a flashpoint of armed conflict," Cho said.

During his visit to South Korea last month, Trump said his administration will share nuclear propulsion technologies with South Korea to allow its navy to build at least one nuclear-powered submarine.

South Korea's Defense Ministry later announced its intent to launch a nuclear-powered submarine built with domestic technology in the mid-to-late 2030s.