US State Department ‘condemns’ North Korea missile launch which insists on right to weapons tests

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US State Department said it “condemns” North Korea’s apparent missile launch and urged Pyongyang to engage in dialogue.

“The United States condemns the DPRK’s missile launch,” the department said in a statement. “This launch is in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRK’s neighbors and the international
community. We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue.”

The device was fired from the northern province of Jagang into waters off the east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Japanese defence ministry spokesman said it “appears to be a ballistic missile”.

However, Pyongyang’s United Nations ambassador Kim Song told the UN General Assembly in New York: “Nobody can deny the right to self-defence for the DPRK”, the North’s official name.

Leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, condemned as “double standards” South Korean and US criticism of the North’s military developments, while the allies build up their own capacities.

Pyongyang is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its banned programmes to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

In his own UN General Assembly speech, the North’s Kim Song said the North had a right to “develop, test, manufacture and possess” weapons systems equivalent to those of the South and its US ally.

“We are just building up our national defence in order to defend ourselves and reliably safeguard the security and peace of the country,” he said.

Pyongyang has already carried out several missile launches this month, one involving long-range cruise missiles and another that the South’s military said was of short-range ballistic missiles.

Seoul also successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time, making it one of a handful of nations with the advanced technology.

After an emergency meeting, the South’s National Security Committee issued a statement Tuesday saying it “expressed regret for the launch at a time when political stability on the Korean Peninsula is very critical”.

Washington stations around 28,500 troops in the South to defend it against its neighbour and protect US interests in northeast Asia.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has repeatedly said that it is willing to meet North Korean officials anywhere, at any time, without preconditions, in its efforts to seek denuclearisation.

But the North has not shown any willingness to give up its arsenal, which it says it needs to defend itself against a US invasion. — NNN-AGENCIES