North Korea has denounced the United States' designation of Pyongyang as a "country of particular concern" in terms of religious freedom for the 15th straight year.

According to the North's Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) on Friday, a spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. remains unchanged in its hostile intent to destabilize and overturn the North Korean society, under the pretext of defending human rights and religious freedom.

The spokesman said the North will continue to bolster its self-defensive military power centered on nuclear deterrence in order to safeguard the regime and its revolution.

On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department issued its annual 2015 International Religious Freedom Report and redesignated the North as a country of particular concern(CPC). The report said the exercise of religious freedom continues to be nearly nonexistent in North Korea.

It said that religious freedom is guaranteed under the North's Constitution but in reality, there is no freedom and religious activities are brutally punished by execution and torture.