North Korea requests to speak at UN Security Council meeting called in response to latest missile launch
Fox News
The United Nations Security Council is calling an urgent meeting of member countries in the wake of North Korea’s latest missile launch.
In a rare move, the North Korean government is requesting an opportunity to speak when the council convenes.
North Korea on Wednesday fired a submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile toward the East Sea, reigniting perennial tensions in the region.
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The news comes just days after the hermit nation promised “shocking” consequences to protest what it called a provocative U.S. reconnaissance activity near its territory.
South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff announced in a statement that it detected the ballistic missile launch near the North’s capital of Pyongyang.
Now, the nation’s government would like to address the U.N. Security Council itself.
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The address to the Security Council will be the first speech of its kind given by a North Korean representative in about a decade.
The South Korean government has confirmed that a representative of its own country will sit in on the meeting as an observing member.
The North Korean representative is likely to bring up longstanding grievances with U.S. military presence in the area – activity that the communist country contends has overstepped its limits.
Kim Yo Jong, who is North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s sister, accused the U.S. of sending spy planes over the North’s exclusive economic zone, the area within 200 nautical miles of its territory where it controls rights to natural resources.
Kim Yo Jong said a U.S. spy plane crossed the eastern sea boundary between the Koreas at around 5 a.m. Monday and conducted reconnaissance activities over the North’s exclusive economic zone before being chased away by North Korean warplanes.
She also said the U.S. aircraft crossed the eastern sea boundary again at around 8:50 a.m., prompting North Korea’s military to issue an unspecified “strong warning” toward the United States.
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.