North Korea calls UN Secretary General a ‘puppet of U.S.’ after condemnation of missile launch

North Korea’s foreign minister hit out at United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by calling “a puppet of the United States” as she criticized the UN chief for voicing condemnation along with the United States of the North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile test.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had issued a statement condemning North Korea’s ICBM launch on Friday and once again urged the North to “to immediately desist from taking any further provocative actions.”

Guterres’s statement came after the United States and other countries issued statements of their own condemning North Korea’s test of an ICBM, a weapon that experts believe could reach mainland United States. 

“I often take the U.N. secretary-general for a member of the US. White House or its State Department,” said North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.

“I express my strong regret over the fact that the UN secretary-general has taken a very deplorable attitude, oblivious of the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and its proper mission which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and equity in all matters,” Choe said, adding that the US taking the ICBM test to the UN Security Council “clearly proves that he is a puppet of the US.”

Kim Jong Un was present at the missile launch, calling the Hwasong-17 missile a “reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon which was made to contain US military threats.

Choe added that the missile tests are “legitimate and just exercise of the right to self-defense” against “provocative nuclear war rehearsals” by the west.