North Korea has criticized the United States for holding back improvements in inter-Korean relations.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a special message, described as a "memorandum," on Saturday which marks the first anniversary of the South-North summit held on April 27th last year.

In the lengthy message, the committee enumerated and praised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's accomplishments toward achieving a self-reliant unification of the Korean Peninsula.

It stressed that the whole Korean people earnestly want to see cross-border relations improve through the thorough implementation of the April 2018 summit agreement.

But North Korea said the U.S. was blatantly pressuring Seoul to adjust the pace in progressing its relations with Pyongyang because that should not outpace the U.S.-North Korea relationship.

It said that Washington was trying to force inter-Korean relations to be subordinate to its sanctions policy.

The committee claimed that the danger of war was deepening and a grave security situation was being created on the Korean Peninsula, possibly signaling a return to past days when catastrophe loomed large.