North Korea hit back at U.S. sanctions in response to recent hypersonic missile tests that raised new security concerns, vowing a "stronger and certain reaction” to Washington’s attempt to halt its weapons programs.

The pursuit of the advanced hypersonic missiles system, which are designed to evade existing defenses, is North Korea’s "legitimate right,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Washington’s move to slap sanctions on North Koreans who advanced its nuclear and ballistic weapons programs was a dangerous escalation, the ministry added in a statement released Friday through the state’s official Korean Central News Agency.

A dispatch from the Foreign Ministry is usually reserved for North Korea’s most important messages to the outside world. The statement ratchets up tensions as the Biden administration is pushing Kim Jong Un to return to nuclear disarmament talks stalled for nearly three years. Kim’s regime has shunned overtures for talks, stepped up its production of fissile material for nuclear bombs and tested new systems to deliver atomic warheads.