NEW YORK – North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations told the General Assembly yesterday that “nobody can deny” the nuclear-armed country the right to test weapons.
Kim Song’s comments at the world body’s headquarters here came just moments after South Korea’s military said the North has fired an “unidentified projectile” into the sea off its east coast.
“Nobody can deny the right to self-defence for DPRK (North Korea) to develop, test, manufacture and possess a weapon systems equivalent to the ones that are possessed or being developed by them,” said Kim, referring to South Korea and the United States.
“We are just building up our national defence in order to defend ourselves and reliably safeguard the security and peace of the country.”
Pyongyang is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
It has already carried out several missile tests this month, one involving a long-range cruise missile and another with short-range ballistic missiles, according to the South’s military.
Seoul recently successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time, making it one of a handful of nations with the advanced technology.
Kim said annual joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, and “the deployment of all kinds of strategic weapons” towards the North, should be stopped “permanently”.
The launch early today in the Korean Peninsula came as the North was due to open a session of its rubber-stamp Parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly. – AFP, September 28, 2021
