North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has accused United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres of «being a puppet of the United States,» accusing him of failing to comply with UN charter principles such as impartiality and objectivity.
On Friday, «Guterres again called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) legitimate and just exercise of the right to self-defense against the grave U.S. military threat a ‘provocation’. Lately, I have often taken the UN secretary-general for a member of the U.S. White House or its State Department,» Choe said.
«I express my deep regret that the UN secretary general has taken a very deplorable attitude forgetting the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and its mission, which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and fairness in all affairs,» the minister said, according to a statement carried by the state-run KCNA.
The minister also regretted that Guterres has «blamed» North Korea, «instead of the United States, which provoked it first.» «This is the most astonishing and deplorable thing for me,» she said, before adding that this shows that the secretary general «is clearly a puppet» of Washington.
In this regard, the head of North Korean diplomacy has maintained that «recently» her Cabinet warned the head of the United Nations «to consider the issue of the Korean peninsula on the basis of impartiality and objectivity».
Thus, Choe has «made it clear» that the «worrying security of the peninsula» is due to «the dangerous military cooperation of the United States» with its allies, Seoul and Tokyo, with whom it conducts military training in the region.
«The international community must raise its voice that, if peace and stability are to be maintained on the peninsula and in the region, it is important to restrict and stop the provocative US military actions,» the minister remarked.
Guterres issued a statement Friday strongly condemning Pyongyang’s launch of a long-range ballistic missile, urging it to «immediately desist from further provocative actions.
Pyongyang has been testing missiles with unusually high frequency this year, including short- and long-range ballistic missiles, as well as a medium-range missile that flew over the Japanese archipelago. The intercontinental projectile launched Friday can carry several nuclear warheads to a radius of about 15,000 kilometers, enough to reach the entire U.S. mainland.
