Pyongyang (Dispatches) – North Korea said on Sunday the United Nations Security Council applied double standards over military activities among UN member states, state media KCNA said.
The Council met behind closed doors on Friday upon requests from the United States and other countries over the North’s missile launches.
The meeting came a day after Pyongyang fired a newly developed anti-aircraft missile, the latest in a recent series of weapons tests including the launches of a previously unseen hypersonic missile, ballistic missiles and a cruise missile with potential nuclear capabilities.
Jo Chol Su, director of the North Korean foreign ministry’s Department of International Organizations, said the UNSC meeting means an “open ignorance of and wanton encroachment” on its sovereignty and “serious intolerable provocation.”
Jo accused the Council of double standards as it remains silent about U.S. joint military exercises and weapons tests with allies, while taking issue with the North’s “self-defensive” activities.
“This is a denial of impartiality, objectivity and equilibrium, lifelines of the UN activities, and an evident manifestation of double-dealing standard,” Jo said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
The launch of the North Korean missile, dubbed the Hwasong-8, is of great strategic significance for Pyongyang, which is under harsh UN sanctions for its missile and nuclear activities.
Developing the hypersonic missile is one of the five “top priority” tasks in the five-year plan for strategic weapons, KCNA said in a statement.
Back in January, the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, declared that his country was working to develop hypersonic warheads, a nuclear-powered submarine, military reconnaissance satellites and solid-fuel ICBMs.
The latest test, Pyongyang’s third round of launches over the past month, came less than an hour before the North Korean envoy to the United Nations addressed the General Assembly in New York.