North Korea Fires New Missile, UN Envoy Insists On ’Right to Test Weapons’

 

North Korea’s test launch came just moments before its envoy to the United Nations was set to address the UN General Assembly in New York.

 

Kim Song told the UNGA that, “Nobody can deny the right to self-defense for the DPRK,” calling for the United States to give up its "hostile policy" towards Pyongyang.

 

Referring to South Korea and the United States, he insisted that Pyongyang will continue “to develop, test, manufacture and possess the weapon systems equivalent to the ones which are possessed or being developed by them.”

 

“We are just building up our national defense in order to defend ourselves and reliably safeguard the security and peace of the country," Kim noted.

 

He said it was North Korea's growing deterrent that was responsible for preventing war on the Korean peninsula, not "the US's mercy."

 

The North Korean UN envoy also said if the United States dropped its hostile policy and "double standards," it would respond "willingly at any time" to offers to talks.

 

"But it is our judgment that there is no prospect at the present stage for the US to really withdraw its hostile policy," Kim said.

 

Meanwhile, the South held an emergency National Security Council meeting after the test launch, expressing regret over what it called “a short-range missile launch at a time when political stability on the Korean Peninsula is very critical.”

 

Japan's defense ministry said the launch could have been of a ballistic missile.

 

The North’s missile test, the third this month, drew condemnation from the United State, with the State Department calling on Pyongyang “to engage in dialogue.”

 

For its part, South Korea has recently test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile [SLBM] for the first time.