North Korea criticizes South for collaborating with 'foreign powers'

June 16 (UPI) -- North Korea state media condemned the South on Sunday for advocating denuclearization in coordination with "foreign powers."

Propaganda service DPRK Today said "foreign interference and intervention" will get in the way of developing inter-Korea relations, and make it impossible to achieve peace and prosperity for a unitary Korean people.

"As the master of one's own destiny is the self, the issue of inter-Korea relations, peaceful unification, are matters the Korean people, the direct agents, should resolve independently and by pooling our strengths," DPRK Today said.

North Korea is targeting South Korea's diplomatic outreach at a time when South Korean President Moon Jae-in is on a tour of Europe.

During his trip to Scandinavia, Moon said he is ready for dialogue at any time and place with the North.

"The choice of timing rests with Chairman Kim Jong Un," Moon had said, according to South Korean news service News 1.

On Sunday North Korea expressed skepticism of the South's intentions.

"If peaceful prosperity and unification is what is genuinely sought then the obsolete position of last month must be cast aside," Pyongyang's state media said. "Then, the North-South agreement must be faithfully carried out, in order for all to join in the flow of patriotism and love of country, that moves toward peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula."

Workers' Party paper Rodong Sinmun criticized South Korea's conservatives on Saturday, the 19th anniversary of the signing of the June 15th North-South Joint Declaration during the first inter-Korea summit in Pyongyang in 2000.

"The right-wing powers are trying to revive the past period of [North-South] confrontation by calling the joint declaration a 'document of degradation'," the Anti-Imperialist National Democratic Front's Pyongyang representative said in the Rodong statement.

The article also warned inter-Korea relations could return to a past state of confrontation.

North Korea has not responded to Moon's call for talks but did send a letter of condolence to the family of former first lady Lee Hee-ho last week. Lee died at the age of 97.