PYONGYANG, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) — The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has criticized U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for supporting "pressure through sanctions" on the DPRK for its nuclear and missile program.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) Monday quoted the permanent mission of the DPRK to the U.N. as saying last week in a statement that the U.N. chief, when addressing the security conference in Munich this month, "made senseless remarks about the so-called 'pressure through sanctions' against the DPRK."

The U.N. chief also called the strengthening of nuclear force of the DPRK as "contradiction to the will of the international community," said the statement, issued on Feb. 22.

"This is completely unreasonable sophistry that does not befit at all his position as U.N. secretary-general, giving us an impression that he is an advocate of the United States," said the statement.

The statement also blamed the U.N. chief for "not saying a word about the U.S.," which is developing all kinds of sophisticated nuclear weapons and exposing its wild ambition for nuclear preemptive strike in its latest Nuclear Posture Review.

The nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula came into being and reached the present point entirely due to the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK "from the first day of the founding" of the country, it said.

The statement said DPRK Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Jan. 31 forwarded a letter to the U.N. chief urging him to update the U.N. Security Council on improved inter-Korean relations after the DPRK and South Korea agreed to cooperate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and take measures to gradually to ease tensions on the peninsula.

"If the secretary-general is truly interested in addressing the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula, it would be advisable that he immediately bring the issue to the attention of the U.N. Security Council," said the statement.