UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday accused the United Nations and the United States of "double dealing" for condemning Pyongyang's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests.
Ambassador Kim In Ryong, deputy permanent representative of the DPRK, read out a letter to the media in the Press Briefing Room at UN headquarters in which he threatened to ignore UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions for what it calls discrimination and registered additional complaints against the world organization and the United States, including for joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises.
"The sophism of the U.S. claiming that it may carry out missile launches but not the DPRK and that its launches are a 'contribution' to peace and security while the one by DPRK is 'provocative' and strains tensions, is really the height of double-dealing standards," he said.
"The UNSC has kept mum about the U.S. test-fire of an ICBM which flew more than 6,000 kilometers across the ocean, even while crying out for 'denunciation' and 'sanctions' for ballistic rocket test-fires the DPRK carried out," Kim said.
The DPRK tested a Hwangsong-12 ICBM May 14 which the council criticized in a press statement while the United States tested ICBMs April 26 and May 3 without criticism, the Pyongyang envoy said.
"If the UNSC does not call the U.S. to account for its aggressive and provocative large-scale joint military exercises and ICBM launches, the DPRK will never recognize any UNSC 'resolution' taken over the DPRK's ballistic rocket launches but continue to disclose the absurdity of the UN 'sanction resolutions,'" Kim said.
The DPRK has ignored several resolutions against ICBM and nuclear weapons testing.
Kim also said the UN Secretariat has ignored requests for an "international forum of legal experts to clarify the legal basis of the 'sanction resolutions.'"
He said his nation's missile tests were needed for self defense purposes because of the threat posed by the joint military exercises.
"The solid peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region will be possible only when the military hostile actions and anachronistic anti-DPRK policy of the U.S., the principal offender of any tense situation, comes to an end," Kim said.
The DPRK's nuclear capability for self defense and deterrence is aimed at the United States trying to antagonize, isolate and stifle the DPRK, he said.
But, Kim said that if the Trump administration "truly wants to adopt a new policy towards the DPRK, drawing a lesson from the preceding administration's failure, it should replace the Armistice Agreement between the DPRK and U.S. with a peace accord and the total removal of hostile relations."
Such a move would "help ensure lasting peace of the Korean peninsula and further global peace and security," he said.
A joint statement by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said last month that the United states aims to use economic sanctions and diplomatic measures to pressure the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs.
The statement also said that the United States remained "open to negotiations" toward the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while staying "prepared to defend ourselves and our allies."
After reading out his letter, Kim replied to a reporter's query regarding suggestions the DPRK could have been responsible for the recent WannaCry cyber attack affecting more than 100 countries, calling the suggestion "ridiculous," adding that his nation gets blamed "when anything happens."
