Pyongyang blames the U.S. and its “extreme double standards” for hindering peace and stability in the Korean peninsula.
The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rejected talks with the U.S. at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Thursday following weeks of deteriorating relations. In the last two weeks, Pyongyang launched a spy satellite violating resolutions set by the U.N. and withdrew from the 2018 military pact with South Korea that aimed to ease tensions in the Korean peninsula.
Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong, who is a senior official of Pyongyang’s publicity and information department, criticized the U.S. as having “extreme double standards” for suggesting to reopen talks while increasing military activities in the region. North Korea “will continue to make efforts to develop everything belonging to its sovereign rights and continue to exercise the sovereign rights, enjoyed by all the member states of the U.N., in a dignified manner without being restricted in the future, too,” she said. At Thursday’s meeting, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield condemned the satellite launch, labeling it “reckless, unlawful.”
Kim Yo Jong claimed that Washington was “double-faced” and that it was U.S. “high-handed and arbitrary practices” that thwarted peace in the region — not the space program.
On Friday, Kim Jong Un called on the military to prepare for any “provocation” and announced a deployment of more soldiers and other weapons to its border with South Korea.
