Sister Of North Korean Leader Says Pyongyang Has 'Sovereign Right To Satellite Launch'

Sister of North Korean Leader Says Pyongyang Has 'Sovereign Right to Satellite Launch'

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st June, 2023) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, who serves as a deputy head of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, said Thursday Pyongyang has the "sovereign right" to launch satellites as all other countries.

"No one can deny the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) sovereign right to satellite launch," the state-run Korean Central news Agency quoted Kim Yo Jong as saying.

She said that "if the DPRK's satellite launch should be particularly censured, the U.S. and all other countries, which have already launched thousands of satellites, should be denounced," adding that "the far-fetched logic that only the DPRK should not be allowed to do so according to the UNSC's 'resolution' which bans the use of ballistic rocket technology irrespective of its purpose, though other countries are doing so, is clearly a gangster-like and wrong one of seriously violating the DPRK's right to use space and illegally oppressing it."

Kim Yo Jong claimed that the United States would consider it illegal and threatening "even if the DPRK launches a satellite in space orbit through balloon."

"The U.S. should cool its head heated with confrontation hysteria and clearly look into the UN Charter and the provisions of the space treaty once again before groundlessly denying and pulling up a sovereign state over its satellite launch and its right to space development," she said, adding that "the U.

S. is absorbed in watching every movement of the DPRK with sharp eyes after flying a lot of reconnaissance satellites, high altitude unmanned reconnaissance planes and all other reconnaissance assets in the sky above the Korean Peninsula."

Kim Yo Jong also said that North Korea was certain that its new military reconnaissance satellite would "soon start its mission on a space orbit."

On Wednesday, North Korea made an unsuccessful attempt to put the Malligyong-1 military reconnaissance satellite mounted on the Chollima-1 carrier rocket into orbit.

Following the launch, White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adam Hodge said the US "strongly condemns" North Korea's latest space launch "using ballistic missile technology," adding that US President Joe Biden and his security team were assessing the situation. Hodge said the launch was "a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions," adding that it raised tensions and risks of destabilizing security in the region and beyond. He also urged "all countries to condemn this launch and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations."

Tokyo and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also said the North Korean launch was in violation of the United Nations Security Council's resolutions.