N Korea: UN Security Council turned into US ‘political appendage’ by accepting its 'robbery demands'
North Korea has bitterly criticized the United Nations Security Council for its meeting on Pyongyang’s recent satellite launch at the request of the United States, vowing to take further self-defensive steps.
The remarks were made early Sunday by Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a powerful official in the country’s ruling party.
The Security Council's last week meeting was held at the request of the United States to discuss North Korea's first attempt at putting a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit. The attempt failed with the rocket’s booster and payload plunging into the sea.
Pyongyang then vowed to launch another military satellite in the near future, saying the launch of the new-type satellite carrier rocket, known as Chollima-1, failed because of instability in the engine and fuel system.
"I am very offended that the UN Security Council routinely criticizes our exercise of sovereign rights as the United States wants, and strongly condemn and reject this as the most unfair, prejudiced act of interfering in [our] internal affairs and infringing [on] our sovereignty," Kim said in a statement carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.
She added that the meeting proved the Security Council has turned into a US "political appendage" by accepting Washington's "robbery demands" to ignore her country's right to space development.
The North Korean leader’s sister noted that the satellite launch was a "legitimate, self-defensive countermeasure" against increasing threats from the US and its allies.
Pyongyang charges Washington and its regional allies, South Korea and Japan, with escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula with their annual springtime military drills, which the North sees as rehearsals for invasion of its territory.
In the latest instance of such drills, which got underway more than a week ago, American and South Korean forces carried out live-fire exercises simulating an alleged "full-scale attack" from North Korea.
Kim concluded by saying that North Korea will never acknowledge the Security Council's sanctions resolutions "even if they impose them [on the country a] hundred, [or a] thousand times," pledging Pyongyang will continue exercising its sovereign rights, including launching military satellites.
ME
