North Korea lambasted a new British series about the reclusive country's nuclear weapons program and accused the United Kingdom of supporting the show.
North Korea's top military body, the National Defense Commission (NDC), called the drama "nothing but a slanderous farce" meant to denigrate and distort the country's nuclear capability.
The Channel 4 series, entitled Opposite Number, was announced last month and depicts a British nuclear scientist abducted in North Korea during a clandestine operation. He is then forced to help with the North's nuclear technology.
The NDC spokesperson said in a statement, translated to English, that the country does not need foreign technology being that it already has "unimaginably powerful nuclear weaponry."
The statement mentions that the series was being "orchestrated at the tacit connivance, patronage and instigation by 'Downing Street,'" the official residence of two of the highest British Cabinet ministers, the First Lord of the Treasury and the Second Lord of the Treasury.
The spokesperson challenged UK officials to "throw these reactionary movies... into a cesspit and punish those behind the projects if it wants to... help maintain bilateral relations."
Opposite Number is a 10-part series written by British screenwriter Matt Charman. It aims to take viewers into the "closed worlds of North Korea" with "opposing CIA and M16 agents secretly deployed on the ground in Pyongyang, as the clock ticks on a global-scale nuclear crisis," according to its website.
The self-isolated state has in the past threatened its biggest enemies Seoul and Washington with nuclear air strikes. It has mounted three atomic tests, with the most recent one done in 2013.
While it is believed to be a developing a miniaturized nuclear warhead to be used on long range missiles, experts think the state has not perfected the technology.
Last June, the North Korean government slammed the Hollywood film The Interview, which stars Seth Rogen and James Franco, for its storyline that includes an attempt to assassinate the country's charismatic and autocratic leader Kim Jong Un.
The North warned of a "merciless response" if the US government doesn't ban the film. The movie is scheduled for release on Christmas Day