The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that the U.S. decision to scrap food aid over its planned satellite launch was an overreaction.

"The U.S. overreaction to the DPRK's plan to launch a scientific and technological satellite for peaceful purposes has gone beyond the limit," a Foreign Ministry spokesman told the official KCNA news agency.

The U.S. announcement has violated its commitment to not relating humanitarian issues with political ones, said the spokesman.

The DPRK has said it would launch a satellite between April 12 and 16 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of its late leader Kim Il Sung. The plan has raised serious concerns among the international community.

A Pentagon official said Wednesday that the planned launch was "highly provocative and "manifested the DPRK's desire to test and expand its long-range missile capability."

The DPRK has insisted that the launch was peaceful in nature, and its decision to invite foreign experts and reporters to watch the launch site served as proof.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman called on the United States to accept the DPRK's peaceful satellite launch and prove with action that it bore no hostility toward the DPRK.

Under an agreement reached on Feb. 29, the DPRK agreed to suspend nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and uranium enrichment activities. In return, the United States would provide the DPRK with 240,000 tons of nutritional assistance.

"This would be a regrettable act of scrapping the DPRK-U.S. agreement in its entirety as it is a violation of the core articles of the Feb. 29 DPRK-U.S. agreement," said the spokesman.