(Seoul) North Korea on Saturday accused US President Joe Biden of committing “interference” and “provocation” against it by condemning the missile launch by Pyongyang this week.
In a statement issued by the official Korean Central News Agency, a prominent North Korean official, Ri Byung Chol, estimated that the President of the United States had shown in his statements “deep hostility” to Pyongyang and warned that repetition of such statements could lead to “negative consequences” for Washington. .
North Korea, a nuclear power, has regularly used its military tests for years to add pressure in its conflicting relationship with the United States.
It conducted a firing test on Thursday of what it described as a new “tactical guided missile” with a solid fuel engine.
Two samples of this device were launched Thursday morning from eastern North Korea towards targets located in the Sea of ​​Japan called the East Sea in Korea.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga immediately declared that these projectiles are “two ballistic missiles,” a class of devices that are prohibited from being developed and launched in North Korea by several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Pyongyang’s deep concern
Like the Japanese prime minister, Joe Biden considered the North Korean test a “violation” of relevant United Nations resolutions.
The President of the United States issued a warning to Pyongyang. We consult with our partners and allies. There will be answers if (North Korean leaders) choose to escalate. “We will respond in this way,” he said.
Biden’s reaction was heavily criticized by Ri Byung Chol, the same senior official who was reported by the KCNA to oversee the shooting on Thursday.
“Such statements by the US president are an unconvincing interference and provocation of our country’s right to self-defense,” Rhee said in his statement.
North Korea expresses “deep concern about the fact that the chief of the US executive authority considers the error a normal test, and the exercise of our nation’s right to self-defense, by describing it as a violation of the” United Nations “resolutions, the senior official.
Mr. Rhee regretted that Mr. Biden had expressed “profound hostility” toward Pyongyang in this way. He wrote, “I think the new American administration has clearly made a first misstep.”
” consequences ”
In turn, the senior North Korean official issued a warning to Washington. He wrote: “If the United States continues its rash remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may face something that will not be good.”
Rhee said North Korea, for its part, intends to “continue to increase its overwhelming military strength.”
In a cable that avoided using the words “missile” and “ballistic,” the Korean Central News Agency said on Friday that the two projectiles launched the previous day had accurately reached their targets at sea after traveling 600 km.
The official agency determined that the successfully tested machine could carry a load of 2.5 tons.
North Korea’s experience on Thursday caused alarm not only in Washington and its regional allies, but also its European allies.
Diplomatic sources learned that on Friday, the European members of the United Nations Security Council asked their partners in this forum to hold a meeting on the North Korean fire.
The Security Council is under consideration
The same sources said that this meeting, which is requested by France, Estonia, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom, should be held in the middle of the day behind closed doors.
On Friday morning, at the initiative of the United States, the UN Sanctions Committee responsible for North Korea, which includes 15 member states of the Security Council, asked its team of UN experts to investigate Thursday’s shooting incident, diplomats said.
On Friday, the UN Security Council also adopted a resolution extending until April 30, 2022, the mandate of UN experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of various sets of severe economic sanctions against Pyongyang.
Despite a series of Security Council resolutions that imposed sanctions on its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, North Korea has greatly enhanced its military capabilities in recent years under the leadership of its leader, Kim Jong Un.
It has conducted numerous nuclear tests and equipped itself with long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching the entire continental United States.
Under Donald Trump’s presidency, an astonishing convergence was made, marking two historic heights between MM. Trump and Kim. But this did not lead to progress toward denuclearization of North Korea.
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