The United States and its allies and North Korea, Russia, and China were at odds on Friday about North Korea’s failed attempts to launch a spy satellite and who was to blame for the spike in tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
For just the second time since 2017, North Korea’s UN ambassador was present at the open Security Council meeting called by the U.S., Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, and Malta to denounce the failed launch, which made use of prohibited ballistic missile technology.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the official name of the nation, has “an independent and legitimate right” to launch a satellite for “self-defense to deter the ever-increasing hostile military acts of the United States and its followers,” according to Ambassador Kim Song, who also spoke to the council in July.
The North’s space agency announced on Thursday that Malligyong-1, a reconnaissance satellite, had failed to enter orbit for a second time due to a problem with its third-stage flight. Pyongyang announced that it will make a third effort in October to accomplish a crucial military objective of its leader, Kim Jong Un.
The United States claims that the DPRK has continued its illicit ballistic missile development in contravention of Security Council resolutions. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, ambassador
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United Against Nuclear Actions
She claims that 13 out of the 15 Security Council members oppose the DPRK’s illegal actions and have demanded an end to the country’s nuclear weapons research and testing, as well as unanimity on the body.
Song claimed that the DPRK has never recognised Security Council decisions because they “violate the rights of a sovereign state” and “will never be bound by them in the future.
He demanded the toppling of the DPRK’s regime and called for large-scale combined military exercises. He also called the US and South Korea “military gangsters” who had “turned the Korean Peninsula into a potential area of an immense thermonuclear war.”
Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian representative to the United Nations, referred to the meeting as “a cynical, hypocritical attempt by the U.S. and its allies to step up pressure on Pyongyang and to deflect attention from the reckless escalatory actions of Washington and its allies in the region, who represent the real sources of threats to international peace and security.”
He dubbed the increase in U.S.-led military drills as “blatantly provocative,” claiming that they make it more difficult to begin a discourse that is required to bolster regional security.
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Source: ABC News
