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N Korea defends satellite launch at UN, as Kim \u2018studies\u2019 images of Pentagon | United Nations News<\/p>\n
The launch of the spy satellite last week was slammed by Western powers as well as Pyongyang\u2019s neighbours.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n North Korea\u2019s ambassador made a rare appearance at the United Nations Security Council to defend his country\u2019s launch of a spy satellite, as Pyongyang\u2019s state media said leader Kim Jong Un received satellite images of the White House and Pentagon.<\/p>\n Western powers, Japan and South Korea have said North Korea violated Security Council resolutions by launching the satellite last week.<\/p>\n At the Security Council on Monday, Kim Song, North Korea\u2019s ambassador to the UN, complained that other countries faced no restrictions on satellites.<\/p>\n \u201cNo other nation in the world is in the security environment as critical as the DPRK,\u201d said Kim, using the North\u2019s official name, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cOne belligerent party, the United States, is threatening us with a nuclear weapon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a legitimate right for the DPRK as another belligerent party to develop, test, manufacture and possess weapons systems equivalent to those that the United States possesses or is developing.\u201d<\/p>\n The country has said that its new eye in the sky has already provided images of major US and South Korean military sites, as well as photos of the Italian capital Rome.<\/p>\n On Monday, Kim received \u201cin detail\u201d images of the White House and the Pentagon, which he later studied, according to North Korea\u2019s state-run KCNA news agency.<\/p>\n The North Korean leader also counted the number of aircraft carriers at a military base and a shipyard in the state of Virginia, the agency said.<\/p>\n The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, rejected North Korea\u2019s assertion it was acting in self-defence and said that joint US-South Korean exercises were \u201croutine\u201d and \u201cdefensive in nature\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe intentionally reduce risk and pursue transparency by announcing the exercises in advance including the dates and the activities, unlike the DPRK,\u201d she said, adding that the drills did not violate Security Council resolutions.<\/p>\n South Korea\u2019s spy agency said that Russia, eager for assistance in Ukraine, helped North Korea on the satellite following a summit between Kim and President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n The US said last month that North Korea had delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia.<\/p>\n Russia and China, North Korea\u2019s main ally, have put forward a resolution, opposed by the US, to ease sanctions on Pyongyang as part of an effort to encourage dialogue.<\/p>\n Chinese envoy Geng Shuang accused the US of \u201cfurther aggravating tension and confrontation\u201d through its military alliance with South Korea.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the DPRK constantly feels threatened, and its legitimate security concerns remain unresolved, the peninsula will not be able to get out of the security dilemma and only be caught in a vicious cycle of tit-for-tat aggressive moves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\nUS response<\/h2>\n