New Delhi: North Korea on Monday said that it would continue to exercise its sovereign rights, including through satellite launches, as it dismissed international condemnation over its latest satellite launch.
Simultaneously, it was reported that North's troops were restoring some demolished guard posts on the border with South Korea, according to news agency Reuters.
North Korea's foreign ministry said the launch of a reconnaissance satellite last week was prompted by the need to monitor the United States and its allies, Reuters cited state media KCNA.
"It is a legal and just way to exercise its right to defend itself and thoroughly respond to and precisely monitor the serious military action by the U.S. and its followers," the KCNA report said.
Nuclear-armed North Korea launched the satellite on Tuesday, saying it successfully entered orbit and was transmitting photographs. However, South Korean defence officials and analysts said its capabilities have not been independently verified.
After the launch, South Korea suspended a key clause in a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement and resumed aerial surveillance near the border.
North Korea in turn declared it was no longer bound by the agreement and would deploy weapons on the border with the South, reported Reuters.
According to South Korea's defence ministry, North Korean soldiers had been observed bringing back heavy weapons into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) border and setting up guard posts that the two countries demolished under the agreement.
South Korea's defence ministry said that armed North Korean soldiers had been spotted restoring damaged guard posts in several locations since Friday, citing photographs from cameras in the DMZ, reported Reuters.
Meanwhile, on Monday morning, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again visited the control centre of the space agency in Pyongyang and viewed fresh satellite photos of the United States' Anderson Air Force base in Guam and other places including Rome, Reuters reported citing KCNA.
The United States had called an unscheduled meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday to discuss the North's satellite launch.