North Korea defends recent missile test in rare UN Security Council appearance

In rare remarks to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday, July 13, North Korea’s envoy to the UN defended his country’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test as necessary to “safeguard the security of our state." North Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Song said Pyongyang’s “test fire of a new type of ICBM had no inevitable effect on the security of a neighboring country.” “We categorically reject and condemn the convening of the Security Council briefing by the United States and its follows,” the North Korean diplomat said. Kim also took aim at joint US-South Korea military exercises and US deployments of nuclear-powered submarines and strategic bombers to South Korea, saying Washington was bringing the Koreas “to the brink of nuclear war." Credit: United Nations via Storyful