North Korean envoy ignores US call for testing freeze in UN speech

North Korea’s Ambassador to the UN Ja Song Nam attends the United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korea’s nuclear program at UN headquarters in New York City.(REUTERS photo)

North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations on Friday ignored a US call for a cessation of weapons testing to allow for talks with Pyongyang on its nuclear program and said his country would not pose a threat to any state, as long as its interests were not infringed upon.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier told a meeting of the UN Security Council on Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs that a “sustained cessation of North Korea’s threatening behavior” was needed before talks could occur between Washington and Pyongyang.

North Korea’s UN ambassador, Ja Song Nam, made no mention of Tillerson’s call in his speech to the session, which he called “a desperate measure plotted by the US being terrified by the incredible might of our Republic that has successfully achieved the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force.”