North Korea slammed UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday in a new description of Pyongyang’s nuclear program as a “clear and present danger”.
Military tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply last year as North Korea conducted almost monthly tests of sanctioned weapons, including the launch of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also recently called for an “exponential” increase in Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal and new ICBMs to counter what he called US-South Korean hostility.
Guterres told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the onus is on Pyongyang to resume talks, which collapsed in 2019 when nuclear negotiations between Kim and US president Donald Trump broke down in Hanoi.
“The illegal nuclear weapons program carried out by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a clear and present danger, raising geopolitical risks and tensions to a new level,” Guterres said at a Security Council meeting on the rule of law chaired by Japan’s foreign minister. Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Pyongyang issued a final statement on Saturday accusing Guterres of having “typical double standards” and committing “dangerous actions to undermine the world community’s trust in the UN”.
The statement, attributed to Jo Chol Su, a senior official in Pyongyang’s foreign ministry, also said that Guterres ignored the “reckless development of weapons” by the United States that “continually brings all kinds of nuclear attacks to the Korean peninsula and the region.” “.
Jo also accused Japan of “lacking the moral and legal qualifications” to be part of the UN Security Council due to its wartime and colonial era.
Pyongyang’s statement, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, said the North would not give up its nuclear weapons.
This comes after US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida voiced Tokyo’s military posture during White House talks on Friday.
Japan shook up its defense strategy in December with a promise to increase spending to two percent of GDP in 2027, adding more muscle capability in the face of the rise of China and unpredictable North Korea.
Kim declared North Korea an “irrevocably” nuclear state in September last year.