The Defense Ministry rejected North Korea's threat against South Korea and the United States over their signing of joint defense guidelines, calling them a righteous measure to respond to the North's blatant nuclear threats.

The ministry issued the position on Sunday in a statement in response to the North's criticism of the South Korea-U.S. Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula signed last week.

The ministry issued the statement a day after the North Korean counterpart threatened to make South Korea and the United States pay "an unimaginably harsh price" over the guidelines.

The ministry said that North Korea took issue with the guidelines and issued the threat, when the North is actually to blame for heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry said it is just sophistry for North Korea to vow to boost its nuclear deterrence against South Korea and the United States, stressing that Seoul and Washington would not have needed the deterrence guidelines if there had not been nuclear threats from the North in the first place.

The ministry then underscored that the guidelines were a righteous measure by the allies to respond to the North's advancing nuclear capabilities and its nuclear threats.