North Korea defends ICBM launch in rare U.N. Security Council appearance

July 14 (UPI) -- In a rare appearance before the U.N. Security Council, a North Korean envoy defended the regime's latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch, claiming it was an exercise in self-defense and blaming the United States and its allies for provoking tensions on the Peninsula.

The Security Council convened an emergency meeting Thursday, one day after North Korea test-fired its Hwasong-18 ICBM, a new solid-fuel missile that analysts have said is more maneuverable and quicker to launch than the regime's liquid-fuel models.

North Korean envoy Kim Song said that the missile launch was a self-defense exercise in response to military moves by hostile forces, and called the meeting "a contradictory act that denies the fundamental principles of sovereign equality and non-interference in internal affairs."

Kim's appearance was the first by a North Korean representative before the Security Council since 2017, according to diplomats.

The North Korean envoy cited his regime's claims of spy plane flights by the United States this week as well as the planned deployment of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine to South Korea.

"How can the deployment of nuclear assets, joint military exercises and aerial espionage acts by the United States contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula?" Kim asked.

He called on the Security Council to either refrain from obstructing North Korea's right to self-defense or to denounce the United States' "anti-peace behavior."

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006 and is banned from developing ballistic missile technology.

Security Council members Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly shut down U.S.-led efforts for new measures against North Korea since May of last year, however, highlighting a sharpening geopolitical divide that has emerged in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Russia and China have prevented this Council from speaking with one voice," U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, acting deputy representative to the United Nations, said at the meeting.

"And with these repeated launches, Pyongyang is demonstrating it feels emboldened -- perhaps even encouraged -- to continue in this manner because China and Russia have consistently prevented this Council from taking action to halt these transgressions," he said.

DeLaurentis read a joint statement from ten member states condemning "in the strongest possible terms" North Korea's ICBM launch on Wednesday.

"The Council cannot continue to be silent in the face of these provocations, and we must send a clear and collective signal to the DPRK -- and all proliferators -- that this behavior is unlawful, destabilizing, and will not be normalized," the statement said.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Khaled Khiari, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for political and peacebuilding affairs for the region, told the meeting that the Hwasong-18 can "reach most points on Earth."

He added that North Korea failed to issue airspace or maritime safety notifications for the ICBM launch, its fourth of the year, posing "a serious risk to international civil aviation and maritime traffic."

North Korea has launched 20 ballistic missiles overall this year, according to the Security Council members.

China and Russia once again objected to taking any actions, echoing Pyongyang's claims that the United States shares the responsibility for raising regional tensions.

Washington and its allies are "obsessed with sanctions and pressure, which has caused the DPRK to face huge security threats and pressure to survive," Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Zhang Jun said. "The reasonable security concerns of the DPRK have never been resolved."

Zhang called for the United States to "propose practical solutions, take meaningful actions [and] respond to the legitimate concerns of the DPRK."