North Korea issued a sharp rebuke to President Biden who said the country’s recent test of a new short-range ballistic missile violated United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“We express our deep apprehension over the U.S. chief executive faulting the regular testfire, exercise of our state’s right to self-defence, as the violation of U.N. ‘resolutions’ and openly revealing his deep-seated hostility,” Ri Pyong Chol, a top advisor to Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un said in a statement. “I think that the new U.S. administration obviously took its first step wrong.”
The communique was released via North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency, and reported by Reuters. Biden has said he remains open to diplomacy with the North over denuclearization.
The new US administration promises to be a chillier reception for the mercurial dictator than his four years with former President Trump. Kim and Trump famously met twice for bilateral summits in Singapore and Hanoi and Trump frequently showered Kim with praise. In Feb. 2019, Trump boasted the two were “in love” and had exchanged many “beautiful letters.”
