North Korea said on Saturday that the administration of US President Joe Biden had taken a wrong first step and revealed “deep-seated hostility” by criticizing its self-defensive missile test, Reuters reported.

North Korea on Friday said it had launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile. Biden said the test violated UN Security Council resolutions, but he remained open to diplomacy with Pyongyang.

Ri Pyong Chol, secretary of the North’s ruling Worker’s Party’s Central Committee, said the test was self-defensive against threats posed by South Korea and the US with their joint military exercises and advanced weapons.

“We are by no means developing weapons to draw someone’s attention or influence his policy,” Ri said. “I think that the new US administration obviously took its first step wrong.”

He accused the Biden administration of “exploiting every opportunity” to provoke Pyongyang by branding it as a “security threat.”