SEOUL, September 13. /TASS/. The head of the External Policy Office of the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Washington has been delaying a solution to the Ukrainian conflict and destabilizing the situation in Europe, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The statement came in response to remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who, in the North Korean diplomat’s opinion, "groundlessly slandered the cooperation based on mutual benefit and equality between the Russian Federation and other sovereign states, and committed a political provocation terming it a ‘threat’ to Europe."

"The US secretary of State is trying to deceive the international community, turning black into white, but such attempt can neither cover up nor deny the fact that the US is the root cause of the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis and its prolongation and instability of the situation in Europe," he said in a statement.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry expressed its regret over the fact that Blinken "slandered independent sovereign states while distorting the essence of the Ukrainian situation." The United States exposed its "sinister intention to overstate the ‘security crisis’ of European countries and shift the blame for the present Ukrainian situation on to a third party and thus more firmly rally its followers on the anti-Russian front," the statement says.

In the North Korean diplomat’s words, "it is none other than the U.S. which caused the Ukrainian crisis by inciting the reckless advance of NATO towards the east in disregard of the legitimate security interests of Russia and its territorial integrity, with the wild dream to establish unipolar supremacy."

"The Ukrainian crisis will never be an opportunity to revive the weakened position of the United States, and the Russian people will surely and triumphantly achieve their just aim," the statement says. "We will as ever invariably support the just cause of the Russian people who are striving to defend sovereignty and build a fair and multipolar world, smashing the imperialists' hegemonic policy and high-handed practices.".