Kim Yo Jong, deputy department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, released the following statement on November 29:

I deplore the fact that the UNSC, at which the purpose and principle of the UN Charter have to be strictly respected, is being turned into a theatre of lawlessness where the sovereignty of independent states is wantonly violated, extreme double standards are imprudently applied and injustice and high-handed practices are rampant due to the US and some of its followers, and strongly denounce and reject it.

The whole course of the open meeting of the UNSC over the reconnaissance satellite launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, convened at the gangster-like demand of the US and its followers, clearly proves how weak, false and absurd are the unreasonable arguments of some UN member states denying the DPRK’s sovereign rights.

I took heed to the trivial explanation of Thomas Greenfield, US representative to the United Nations, who described her country as a “victim” of the present situation while illustrating their stand for “meaningful dialogue” and efforts for “peaceful solution”, from lack of justifiable ground for branding the irrefragable DPRK’s right to space development as “illegal”.

However, she should, first, have clarified from where and why the strategic targets have frequently appeared at south Korea’s ports only 500 to 600 km away from Pyongyang, before vouching that the US weapons did not target the DPRK.

The Pentagon should also have helped its representative to UN to make a more logical excuse for how the US stand for “diplomatic engagement” and its efforts to “resume dialogue” blend in with the provocative military activities of the US nuclear carrier and nuclear submarine deployed in the Korean peninsula.

The double-faced stand and behaviour of the US whose deeds are quite different from its words are a vicious factor disturbing peace and stability in the region of the Korean peninsula along with double standards, the height of high-handed and arbitrary practices.

It is the consistent stand of the DPRK on the US to be ready for both dialogue and confrontation and, in particular, more thoroughly ready for confrontation if the “peace by power” favoured by the latter is to rely on muscle-flexing behind speaking much about dialogue.

We make it clear once again to the US which asked the DPRK to fix the time and agenda for resuming the DPRK-US dialogue that the sovereignty of an independent state can never be an agenda item for negotiations, and therefore, the DPRK will never sit face to face with the US for that purpose.

The main threat to international peace and security does not come from the exercise of the DPRK’s sovereign right but from the US high-handed and arbitrary practices to disturb and oppress it.

The DPRK 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 UN, fairly and free from any restriction in the future, too.