North Korea has expressed "strong regret" over the condemnation by the head of the United Nations(UN) of Pyongyang's recent series of missile launches.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a statement "strongly" condemning the North's salvo of missile launches, urging the North to immediately cease provocations and resume talks on denuclearization.

Kim Son-gyong, vice minister for international organizations of foreign affairs, expressed strong regret over the statement in a release carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday.

The vice minister reportedly said that the UN secretary general issued a statement that groundlessly took issue with the North's self-defensive countermeasures responding to U.S. military provocations, adding that he categorically rejects it.

Kim said it is deplorable that the UN secretary general is echoing the White House and the U.S. State Department as if he were their spokesman, adding that unjust and discriminative acts by Guterres are partially responsible for heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.