North Korea Calls UN Chief's Remarks on Missile Test 'Unfair'

North Korea on Wednesday accused UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres of “an extremely unfair and imbalanced attitude,” as it lambasted him for condemning its recent missile test but ignoring US hostility against Pyongyang.

After the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile test on Saturday, Guterres strongly condemned the launch and reiterated his call for the North to immediately desist from making any further provocations. In a statement, Guterres also urged North Korea to resume talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

“To be most deplorable, the UN secretary-general is going on the rampage of illogical and miserable remarks, which are little different from those of US State Department officials over the years,” Kim Son Gyong, the North’s vice foreign minister for international bodies, said in a statement carried by state media, AP reported.

Kim said North Korea’s ICBM test was a response to the security threat the US posed to the North by temporarily deploying long-range bombers for joint training with South Korea earlier this year. Kim said the test was also a warning to the earlier convocation of the UN Security Council on the North.

North Korea views US-South Korea military drills as an invasion rehearsal and is particularly sensitive to the US mobilization of B-1B bombers that can carry a massive conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons. After the North’s ICBM test, the United States flew B-1B bombers again for separate drills with South Korean and Japanese warplanes.

“The UN secretary-general should clearly understand that his unreasonable and prejudiced stand on the Korean Peninsula issue is acting as a factor inciting the hostile acts of the US and its followers against (North Korea),” Kim said.