North Korea accuses Guterres of "being a puppet of the United States"

South Korean foreign minister calls UN secretary-general "impartial" for his criticism of missile launches

MADRID, 21 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The North Korean Foreign Minister, Choe Son Hui, has accused the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, of "being a puppet of the United States", accusing him of failing to comply with the principles of the UN charter such as impartiality and objectivity.

On Friday, "Guterres once again called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK's) legitimate and fair exercise of the right to self-defense against the grave US military threat a 'provocation.' a member of the United States White House or its State Department," Choe said.

"I express my deep regret that the UN Secretary General has taken a very deplorable attitude, forgetting the purpose and principles of the United Nations Charter and its mission, which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and equity in all matters," said the minister, according to a statement released by the state agency KCNA.

Likewise, the minister regretted that Guterres had "blamed" North Korea, "instead of the United States, which caused it first." "This is the most amazing and deplorable thing for me," she has expressed, before adding that this shows that the secretary general "is clearly a puppet" of Washington.

In this sense, the head of North Korean diplomacy has maintained that "recently" her Cabinet warned the head of the United Nations "to consider the issue of the Korean peninsula on the basis of impartiality and objectivity."

Thus, Choe has "made it clear" that the "concerning security of the peninsula" is due to "the dangerous military cooperation of the United States" with its allies, Seoul and Tokyo, with whom it conducts military training in the region.

"The international community must raise its voice that, if peace and stability are to be maintained on the peninsula and the region, it is important to restrict and stop the provocative US military actions", the minister remarked.

Guterres issued a statement on Friday strongly condemning Pyongyang's launch of a long-range ballistic missile, urging it to desist "immediately from further provocative actions.

Pyongyang has been testing missiles with unusually high frequency this year, including short-range and long-range ballistic missiles, as well as a medium-range missile that flew over the Japanese archipelago. The intercontinental projectile launched this Friday can carry several nuclear warheads to a radius of about 15,000 kilometers, that is, enough to reach the entire continental United States.