N Korea accuses UNSC of 'double standard' over missile tests

North Korea said on Monday that the UN Security Council showed a double standard as its sanctions committee criticised the country's recent missile test as a violation of UN resolutions.

The statement came after North Korea said on Saturday that the administration of US President Joe Biden had taken a wrong first step and revealed "deep-seated hostility" by criticising its self-defensive missile test.

North Korea launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile last week, prompting Washington to request a gathering of the UN Security Council's (UNSC) sanctions committee.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

At the committee meeting on Friday, the United States called for imposing additional sanctions and tightening the implementation of existing measures, denouncing the test as a violation of UN resolutions, according to Jo Chol Su, director-general for international organisations at North Korea's foreign ministry.

Jo said the meeting was "designed to negate the right of our state to self-defence," warning it would devise a "countermeasure."

"It constitutes a denial of sovereign state and an apparent double standard that UNSC takes issue, on the basis of the UN 'resolutions' - direct products of the US hostile policy," Jo said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

"It does not make any sense that only our righteous self-defensive measure should be singled out for denunciation, when many other countries across the globe are firing all kinds of projectiles for the purpose of increasing their military strength."