The powerful sister of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday condemned the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for holding a meeting over the North's latest firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), calling it a legitimate exercise of self-defense.
Kim Yo-jong expressed "strong displeasure" at the UNSC, as its members met Thursday (New York time) to discuss the North's launch of a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBM the previous day.
Calling the UNSC meeting an "unfair and prejudiced" move, she said the ICBM launch serves as an exercise of its right to self-defense in response to the United States' "hostile" policy against her country, according to an English-language statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
"No one has any justification for slandering the DPRK's launch of new-type ICBM," Kim said.
Under UNSC resolutions, the North is banned from any launches using ballistic missile technology.
At a U.N. press event, the U.S. and nine other countries condemned the launch by issuing a joint statement. Meanwhile, Kim Song, the North's U.N. ambassador, made a rare appearance at the UNSC meeting to defend the North's launch.
Kim also vowed that her country will build the "most overwhelming" nuclear deterrence until Washington abandons its hostile policy against Pyongyang.
"The price the U.S. has to pay for its moves against the DPRK will never be low, and I do not conceal the fact that very unlucky things will wait for the U.S.," she said, without elaborating on details.
She warned that the North's response to U.S. efforts to enhance the "visibility" of its strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula will become even more "freer" in mode and scope.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden made the agreement over the U.S. assets in a joint declaration during their summit in Washington in April as part of efforts to deter Pyongyang's military threats.
On Thursday, South Korea and the U.S. staged combined air drills, involving a U.S. B-52H strategic bomber, over the peninsula in a show of force against the North's latest launch.
The U.S. has also pledged to send a nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine to the peninsula in the joint declaration for the first time in decades.
Source: Yonhap News Agency