North Korea says it's speeding up the building of its nuclear weapons arsenal to counter threats from "hostile nuclear weapons states," like the United States. "The nuclear threat of United States against [North Korea] has already reached critical point in terms of its scale and danger," North Korea's ambassador to the UN, Kim Song, said at a Security Council meeting on Monday, per the Guardian. "Due to reckless moves of the United States, the potential situation is approaching the brink of war." The meeting came in response to North Korea test-firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile of the year on Thursday.
Hours after Monday's meeting wrapped, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea had fired several short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea east of the Korean Peninsula. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the launches were in response to weekend air drills conducted by the US, South Korea, and Japan, per CBS News. Those drills, themselves coming in response to the ICBM launch, showed "absolute proof of the validity and urgency of the line of building up the nuclear forces we have ... put into practice," Kim said Tuesday.
A day earlier, the US accused China and Russia of "shamelessly" protecting North Korea from "closer scrutiny of its sanctions-violating activities." Under that protection, "Pyongyang, unsurprisingly, has been emboldened to continue advancing its unlawful ballistic missile, nuclear, and [weapons of mass destruction] programs," said deputy US Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood, per Reuters. "There must be large loopholes enabling [North Korea's] access to the equipment, materials, and technology necessary to advance its WMD programs," yet Russia and China have blocked further restrictions, said South Korea's UN Ambassador Joonkook Hwang.
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Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva accused the countries that called Monday's meeting—the US, France, Japan, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia, and Britain—of "demonizing" North Korea to keep "afloat ineffective sanctions measures" and justify "aggressive steps" by the US and allies in the region, per Reuters. China's UN Ambassador Fu Cong said the Security Council should "take concrete measures to de-escalate the situation and enhance mutual trust, rather than simply imposing sanctions and pressure." (More North Korea stories.)
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