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Ballistic missile launchPyongyang calls UN chief ‘US puppet’
On Sunday, the North Korean foreign minister criticized Antonio Guterres, who condemned a recent launch by Pyongyang of an intercontinental missile.
The North Korean ICBM before launch.
AFP extension
North Korea called UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a “puppet of the United States” for condemning Pyongyang’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), hours before a new security council meeting on the subject on Monday.
“I deeply regret that the Secretary-General of the United Nations observes a truly deplorable attitude, unaware of the purpose and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of his own mission, which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and fairness on all matters”. Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement quoted by the official KCNA news agency on Sunday evening.
On Friday, Antonio Guterres called on North Korea to “immediately desist from any further provocative acts” and to “fully comply with its international obligations under Security Council resolutions” after the same day launch of an ICBM that fell from the Japan.
Choe Son Hui complained that the UN chief had called North Korea’s missile tests, not the joint military maneuvers regularly carried out in the region by the United States, South Korea and Japan, “provocations” and that, according to her , “have led to the current situation of confrontation on the Korean peninsula”. “He clearly demonstrates that he is a puppet of the United States,” she said.
The United Nations Security Council is meeting on Monday to discuss the situation on the Korean peninsula as North Korea ramps up missile launches and is suspected by Seoul and Washington of preparing a nuclear test.
“Monster Missile”
KCNA said the missile launched on Friday was a Hwasong-17-type ICBM, dubbed a “monstrous missile” by military experts. The images released by the North Korean state agency show leader Kim Jong Un personally witnessing the preparations for the launch, accompanied by his daughter, whose existence has thus been confirmed for the first time.
Calling on the United Nations Security Council to “respond appropriately” to this fire, the European Union condemned “a dangerous, illegal and irresponsible action”. Also denouncing an “irresponsible” action, the G7 foreign ministers (Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom) called for “a united and decisive response from the international community, including the need for the UN Security Council to take further significant action”.
The Security Council has passed nearly a dozen resolutions imposing sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and missile activity since 2006. But any new sanctions are unlikely: Russia and China, who also criticize Washington’s military maneuvers in the region, oppose their veto to any initiative in this direction.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have intensified their military cooperation since North Korea proclaimed in September that its status as a nuclear power was “irreversible”, ending any possibility of dialogue on its disarmament.
maneuvers
In particular, between the end of October and the beginning of November, the United States and South Korea carried out the largest joint air maneuvers in their history, deploying stealth aircraft and strategic bombers.
North Korea, which views this type of maneuver as a dress rehearsal for an invasion of its territory or an attempt to overthrow its regime, responded by firing a copious salvo of ballistic missiles in the following weeks, including Friday’s ICBM .
Kim Jong Un called the US-South Korea maneuvers a “war exercise of hysterical aggression” and promised to “resolutely respond to nuclear weapons with nuclear weapons and all-out confrontation with ruthless confrontation,” according to the reports reported Saturday by KCNA.
(AFP extension)
