SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned the United States on Tuesday that it faces “a deadlier security crisis” as Washington pushes for the UN condemns the North’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Kim Yo Jong’s warning came hours after US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told an emergency UN Security Council meeting that the US would release a proposed presidential statement. condemning North Korea’s banned missile launches and other destabilizing activities. After the meeting, Thomas-Greenfield also read a statement from 14 countries supporting action to limit North Korea’s advancement of its weapons programs.
Kim Yo Jong, who is widely considered the second most powerful person in North Korea after his brother, lambasted the United States for issuing what she called “a disgusting joint statement with scum such as the Great Britain, France, Australia, Japan and South Korea”.
Kim compared the United States to “a barking dog seized with fear”. She said North Korea would view the U.S.-led statement as “a wanton violation of our sovereignty and a serious political provocation.”
“The United States must bear in mind that no matter how desperately it seeks to disarm (North Korea), it can never deprive (North Korea) of its right to self-defense and that the more it go after anti-(North Korea) acts, it will face a deadlier security crisis,” she said in a statement carried by state media.
Monday’s meeting of the UN Security Council was called in response to Friday’s launch of the ICBM by North Korea, part of a provocative series of missile tests this year that experts say , is designed to modernize its nuclear arsenal and increase its influence in future diplomacy. Friday’s test involved its most powerful Hwasong-17 missile, and some experts say the successful steep-angle launch proved its potential to hit anywhere on the continental United States if fired on a standard trajectory.
At the Security Council meeting, the United States and its allies strongly criticized the ICBM launch and called for measures to limit North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. But Russia and China, both members of the Security Council with the right of veto, have opposed any further pressure and sanctions against North Korea. In May, the two countries vetoed a US-led attempt to toughen sanctions on North Korea for its previous ballistic missile tests, which are banned by UN Security Council resolutions. .
North Korea said its testing activities were legitimate exercises of its right to self-defense in response to regular military drills between the United States and South Korea, which it sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. Officials in Washington and Seoul say the drills are defensive in nature.
Kim Yo Jong said the fact that North Korea’s ICBM launch was discussed in the Security Council is “obviously the application of a double standard” by the UN body, because he “turned a blind eye” to the US-South Korean military exercises. She said North Korea would not tolerate any attempt to undermine its right to self-defense and would take “the harshest of countermeasures to the last” to protect its national security.
On Monday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui called UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres a “puppet of the United States”.
North Korea is feared to soon conduct its first nuclear test in five years.
The status of North Korea’s nuclear capability remains shrouded in secrecy. Some analysts say North Korea already has nuclear missiles that can strike both the continental United States and its allies South Korea and Japan, but others say the North is still years away from possessing such weapons. missiles.