SEOUL-- North Korea on Wednesday denounced U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for taking what it says is an "unfair and unbalanced" stance over its recent missile launches.
The North's foreign ministry issued a statement condemning Guterres for his latest criticism of the North's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) over the weekend.
"I express strong protest at the U.N. chief taking an 'unfair and unbalanced' attitude, as he keeps silent about worrisome military activities by Washington and Seoul, while condemning the North's legitimate exercise of the right of self-defense as a provocation or threat," Kim Son-gyong, a vice foreign minister of the country, said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
North Korea said it fired a Hwasong-15 ICBM on Saturday in a "sudden" launching drill aimed at demonstrating its capability to conduct a "fatal nuclear counterattack."
Kim claimed that the North's missile firing was an "act of self-defense" against the allies' "threatening" military drills that have escalated tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
"If unwanted situations occur on the peninsula due to military actions by the U.S. and the South, we made clear that the U.N. chief cannot be free from heavy responsibility for such a circumstance, given that he has not done anything to restrain their provocative acts," the official added.
Source: Yonhap News Agency