North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister has said that the isolated country would continue its missile tests undeterred, BBC reported on Monday. Han Song Ryol said Pyongyang would carry on with its testing activities despite criticism from the international community and increasing hostilities with the United States. On April 16, the Pentagon had said Pyongyang had failed to launch a missile on its east coast.

“We will be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis,” Han Song-Ryol told BBC. He said Washington’s decision to initiate military action against it would lead to an “all out war”.

North Korea’s permanent representative Ambassador Kim In-ryong, on Monday, said the United State’s recent intervention in Syria was “disturbing global peace and stability and insisting on [a] gangster-like logic”.

His statements follow US Vice-President Mike Pence warning North Korea against “testing the US”. Pence said Trump’s regime signalled a conclusion of former President Barack Obama’s “era of strategic patience” with North Korea. “Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new president in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan,” Pence had said. “North Korea would do well not to test his resolve or the strength of the armed forces of the United States in this region.”