NORTH KOREA DENOUNCES CHINA: Yes, that’s the UPI headline.

North Korea condemned China in strong language, in the latest sign of a growing rift between Beijing and the Kim Jong Un regime over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

The statement from North Korea is unprecedented because it addressed China directly, and exposed the increasingly problematic relationship between the two neighbors.

Pyongyang’s state-controlled news agency KCNA issued the statement on Thursday and claimed the message was from a North Korean official.”It is not China that is the target of [its own] deceptive and treacherous actions, but North Korea’s strategic interests that have been infringed upon,” the statement read, adding China was sacrificing the “dignity and survival” of the Pyongyang regime.

North Korea referred to editorials that ran in Chinese state newspapers, and charged Beijing with playing along with the United States.

The North Korean diatribe also claimed that North Korea had been protecting China.

Stay tuned.