North Korea has vowed to bolster its defenses against what it describes as “US hostility” amid concerns of a third nuclear test following the launch of a long-range rocket last month.

The Foreign Ministry on Monday said in a statement that North Korea will “continue to strengthen its deterrence against all forms of war”.

The memorandum carried by the official Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate on what action North Korea would take to defend itself but claimed the right to build atomic weapons.

The ministry also urged Washington to dismantle the US-led UN Command which oversees an armistice signed at the close of the Korean War in 1953 and never replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean peninsula in a technical state of war, AP reports.

“Whether the US immediately dismantles the UN Command or not will serve as the acid stone in deciding whether the US will maintain or not its anti-North Korea hostile policy,” according to the memorandum.

Pyongyang sent a satellite into orbit last month in a rocket launch condemned by the US and its allies as a banned nuclear missile test.