US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addresses employees and families during a meet-and-greet at the United States Embassy in Panama City, on February 2, 2025. Rubio arrived on the eve on his debut trip abroad as US secretary of state, as he looks for how to follow up on President Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to seize the Panama Canal. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Monday criticized Marco Rubio for calling the country a “rogue state,” dismissing as “nonsense” a comment made by the top US diplomat during a recent interview.
In Pyongyang’s first public denunciation of the new Trump administration, a foreign ministry spokesman said that “we will never tolerate any provocation of the US… but will take tough counteraction corresponding to it as usual,” according to a statement carried on state news service KCNA.
The comments come after US President Donald Trump, who took office last month, said he would “reach out” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after previously meeting with him during his first term.
In a recent radio interview, Rubio mentioned North Korea and Iran as “rogue states” that “you have to deal with” when making foreign policy decisions.
The US secretary of state “talked nonsense by terming the DPRK a ‘rogue state’,” the foreign ministry spokesman said, using the official acronym for the North.
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“The Foreign Ministry of the DPRK deems the US State Secretary’s hostile remarks to thoughtlessly tarnish the image of a sovereign state as a grave political provocation.”
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Largely cut off from the world diplomatically and economically, and under a bevy of sanctions, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has been a major thorn in the side of the United States for years.
Trump, who had a rare series of meetings with Kim during his first term, said in January that he would reach out to the North Korean leader again, calling Kim a “smart guy.”
A summit between the two in Hanoi collapsed in 2019 over talks on sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.
Last week, despite Trump’s diplomatic overtures, North Korea said its nuclear program would continue “indefinitely.”
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