In a statement issued on Thursday, North Korea said the United States was overreacting to its recent missile launch and questioned the sincerity of Washington's offers of negotiations, accusing the United States of applying "double standards" when it comes to weapons development.
North Korea is "very concerned" about what it views as the U.S.'s "abnormal" reaction to a legitimate exercise of its right to self-defense, and branded the U.S.' efforts to convene the UN Security Council meeting as a "provocative maneuver."
During recent weeks, North Korea has claimed that its nuclear and missile tests are aimed at improving its defense capabilities, in the same way that other countries do.
An unnamed representative for North Korea's foreign ministry told the official KCNA news agency that the country's mid- and long-term defense strategy included testing a new ballistic missile from a submarine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, urged North Korea to comply with UN restrictions prohibiting nuclear and missile tests and to embrace offers of dialogue, repeating that the U.S. has no hostile intent toward the North.Thom
Thomas-Greenfield said it is past time to engage in "sustained and serious engagement with a view to achieving the goal of full denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
A representative for the North's foreign ministry said the U.S.' double standards on missile development cast doubt on the country's goodwill gestures.
"To criticize the DPRK for developing and testing a weapon system that is identical to one that the U.S. possesses... is a clear expression of double standards."
"It only excites our doubt about the 'authenticity' of its statement that it doesn't want to antagonize the DPRK," the representative added.
Any wrong behavior by the U.S. and the council could lead to "more serious consequences", the representative said, warning against "tampering with a dangerous time bomb."
North Korea resumed its weapons tests in September after a months-long hiatus, while making conditional peace proposals to Seoul, restarting a pattern of pressing South Korea to obtain what it wants from the U.S.
Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have been stuck for more than two years because of disputes about the exchange of crushing U.S.-led sanctions against North Korea in exchange for the country's disarmament efforts.
