¡¡PYONGYANG, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) on Monday blamed U.S. Secretary of State Rice for her criticism on its missile tests, saying her remarks distorted the reality.

    "Rice made such an outcry in a bid to justify the U.S. hostile policy to pressurize the DPRK," said the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

    At the ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum on Saturday, Rice criticized the DPRK was "an irresponsible and dangerous country for refusing to issue an advance notice about its missile launches in different directions and for openly claiming that it has nuclear strike capability," according to KCNA.

    The DPRK's missile tests did not do any harm to ships or civilian planes in the missile tests area, said KCNA.

    "The DPRK launched missiles only after airspace, land and waters of the sea had been confirmed to be completely safe from them. This fact was admitted even by neighboring countries," it said.

    "Had the DPRK announced its plan for missile launches in advance as demanded by Rice, an extremely grave situation would have been created in the Asia-Pacific," the official news agency said.

    Earlier this month, the DPRK test-fired seven missiles, the DPRK Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement on July 6.

    On July 15, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on the tests, urging the DPRK to return immediately to the six-party talks without preconditions. Enditem