North Korea faults UNSC for 'double standard' over missile tests

North Korea has slammed the UN Security Council (UNSC) for double standards and denying its right to self-defense after the body’s sanctions committee censured Pyongyang’s latest missile test as a violation of UN resolutions.

“It constitutes a denial of sovereign state and an apparent double standard that UNSC takes issue, on the basis of the UN ‘resolutions’ - direct products of the US hostile policy,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for International Organizations, Jo Chol-su, said in a Monday statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

Jo noted that during the Friday meeting of the sanctions committee, Washington had demanded the imposition of additional sanctions and the tightening of the existing measures while condemning the missile test as a violation of UN resolutions.

The meeting was “designed to negate the right of our state to self-defense,” the official insisted, further vowing that Pyongyang would devise a “countermeasure.”

“It does not make any sense that only our righteous self-defensive measure should be singled out for denunciation, when many other countries across the globe are firing all kinds of projectiles for the purpose of increasing their military strength,” Jo emphasized.

The development came after North Korea on Saturday blasted the administration of US President Joe Biden for censuring its self-defensive missile test, describing the move as a wrong first step that revealed Washington’s “deep-seated hostility.”

Pyongyang launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile last week, prompting the US to call for a meeting of the UNSC’s sanctions committee.

Thursday’s test launch was carried out after American and South Korean forces held joint war games that ended earlier this month as well as an official visit to the region by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, who later threatened North Korea with a war after it slammed the resumption of military drills by the US and South Korea.

“Our force remains ready to ‘fight tonight,’ and we continue to make progress toward the eventual transition of wartime Operational Control to a [South Korea]-commanded, future Combined Forces Command,” Austin said at a press conference on March 18.

North Korea has also lashed out at Biden over his remarks on Pyongyang’s recent test launch, slamming his rhetoric as “provocation” and “encroachment” on the country’s right to self-defense.

Following the launch, the US president condemned the test as “destabilizing” and warned that Washington would respond if Pyongyang escalated its weapons tests.

Ri Pyong Chol, a leading official in North Korea's missile program who had supervised the test, responded to Biden’s comments, saying Washington might face "something that is not good" if it continues to make "thoughtless remarks."

Ri further insisted that it was “gangster-like logic” for the US to criticize the North’s tactical weapons tests when Washington was freely testing intercontinental ballistic missiles and could deploy their strategic military assets to the Korean Peninsula at any time.

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