Belarus hoping for top-level contact with North Korea for past 2 years, claims Pyongyang

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's powerful sister Kim Yo Jong on Monday claimed that Belarus has been hoping for a top-level contact with Pyongyang for the past two years.

In a statement, published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim, also the vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, reacted to the Belarusian president's recent remarks in which he said some Asian countries, including North Korea, proposed a top-level meeting to discuss cooperation.

"There is no such thing, at least, as far as I know," she responded.

"I know well that the Belarusian side has been hoping for top-level contact with the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) for at least two years ago," Kim said.

She added that if Belarus wants to develop a cooperative relationship with North Korea, it is important to clarify its intention correctly.

"The DPRK would welcome with joy the Belarusian side without any reason if it wishes to develop friendly and cooperative relations with the DPRK from this stand," Kim said.

Separately, Kim Ryo Won, a North Korean international security analyst, criticized Japan in his article for opening its diplomatic mission to NATO.

"Japan's independent fabrication of mission in NATO is a dangerous act of adding a new instability to the regional situation," the analyst said in the article published by KCNA.

On Wednesday Japan launched its NATO mission in Brussels.

Amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea on Monday began developing a homegrown interceptor system like Israel's Iron Dome to bolster its defense against North Korea.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the country's state arms procurement agency, said that Seoul plans to spend $329 million through 2028 to develop its Low-Altitude Missile Defense system designed to simultaneously intercept incoming artillery rounds, according to the Yonhap news agency.