Kim Yo-jong on UN Security Council's Discussion of North Korea Satellite: "Displeased... Will Continue Launches"

Kim Yo-jong, Deputy Director of the Workers' Party of Korea Photo by Yonhap News

Kim Yo-jong, Vice Director of the Workers' Party of Korea, condemned the United Nations Security Council's discussion of North Korea's military reconnaissance satellite launch as a standalone agenda item, calling it "an insult and distortion of the spirit of the UN Charter."

In a statement released on the 4th through the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo-jong expressed, "We are extremely displeased that the Security Council, following the United States' lead, repeatedly questions North Korea's exercise of sovereign rights."

She also emphasized that the Security Council's sanctions against North Korea have been unfairly imposed. She stated, "We have never recognized any illegal sanction resolutions, and no matter how many times?be it a hundred or a thousand times?this position will never change."

Kim Yo-jong declared that North Korea will continue its military reconnaissance satellite launches. She warned, "We will respond strongly and consistently until the United States and its followers grow tired and admit their choices were wrong, and we will carry out what we must without pause."

Additionally, North Korea indicated that following the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) first-ever adoption of a resolution condemning North Korea's missile launches, it may no longer provide prior notification to the IMO even if it launches satellites in the future. The IMO, headquartered in London, UK, adopted the resolution condemning North Korea's missile launches for the first time immediately after North Korea's provocative military reconnaissance satellite launch.

The Korean Central News Agency stated, "Since the International Maritime Organization responded to our prior notification of satellite launches with an anti-Republic 'resolution,' we will regard this as the organization's official position that our prior notification is no longer necessary."

North Korea launched a space launch vehicle on the 31st of last month, claiming it was a military reconnaissance satellite, but it failed to fly properly and crashed into the West Sea.