N Korea accuses UNSC of 'double standards'

The position of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on missile launches by Pyongyang is a manifestation of a policy of double standards that violates the Asian country's sovereignty and the right to self-defense, Jo Chol Su, a senior North Korean foreign ministry official, said on Monday.

The position of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on missile launches by Pyongyang is a mfestation of a policy of double standards that violates the Asian country's sovereignty and the right to self-defense, Jo Chol Su, a senior North Korean foreign ministry official, said on Monday.

North Korea has conducted two missile tests in recent days -- two cruise missiles were launched toward the Yellow Sea on March 21 and two ballistic missiles toward the Sea of Japan on March 25.

Though Pyongyang described the tests as a right of a sovereign state to self-defense, the launches sparked concerns among a number of states that requested closed consultations on the matter in the UNSC this coming Tuesday, as reported by Sputnik.

"It constitutes a denial of the sovereign state and an apparent double standard that UNSC takes issue, on the basis of the UN 'resolutions' - direct products of the U.S. hostile policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - with the normal activities which fall within the right of our state to self-defense," the director-general of the Department of International Orgzations of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, issued on Sunday, Sputnik reported.

The diplomat recalled that the UN body remained silent when the United States launched an airstrike in eastern Syria in late February. Neither did the council respond to the United Kingdom's recent announcement that it would make a drastic increase in its nuclear warheads and France's test of a new-generation, multi-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, as stated by the North Korean official.

"The United Nations Security Council does not have a single record of having questioned or discussed such acts. It is indeed preposterous that such countries spearheading the moves to undermine global peace and stability are picking on our self-defensive measure," the statement read.

According to the official, if the UN continues to use a double standard policy, it will only contribute to the aggravation of the situation and confrontation, not dialogue, on the Korean peninsula.

( With inputs from ANI )