N.K. says Biden's remarks on recent missile launches a 'provocation'

SEOUL, March 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday accused U.S. President Joe Biden of "provocation" for criticizing its recent missile launches, claiming the firings are an exercise of its self-defense right and warning the U.S. will face "something not good" if such "thoughtless remarks" continue.

Ri Pyong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party, made the statement, a day after Biden said the North's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles Thursday was in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"We express our deep apprehension over the U.S. chief executive faulting the regular testfire, exercise of our state's right to self-defense, as the violation of UN "resolutions" and openly revealing his deep-seated hostility toward the DPRK," Ri said.

"Such remarks from the U.S. president are an undisguised encroachment on our state's right to self-defense and provocation to it," he said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Ri called it a "gangster-logic" for the U.S. to "ship the strategic nuclear assets into the Korean peninsula and launch ICBMs any time it wants" and to criticize the North when it conducts "even a test of a tactical weapon."

"I think that the new U.S. administration obviously took its first step wrong. If the U.S. continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good," he added.

He then warned that the North will continue to increase its "most thoroughgoing and overwhelming military power."

The latest launch came as the Joe Biden administration prepares to announce a new policy on the North.

julesyi@yna.co.kr
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