North Korea calls UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres 'puppet of US' after missile launch

Seoul, November 21

North Korea’s foreign minister called UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “a puppet of the United States” as she slammed the UN chief for joining US-led condemnation of the North’s recent intercontinental ballistic missile test.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier issued a statement strongly condemning North Korea’s ICBM launch on Friday and reiterating his call on the North to “to immediately desist from taking any further provocative actions”.

Guterres’s statement came after the United States and other countries issued similar criticism of the North’s ICBM test that showed a potential to strike anywhere in the continental US.

“I often take the UN secretary-general for a member of the US White House or its State Department,” North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement carried by state media.

“I express my strong regret over the fact that the UN secretary-general has taken a very deplorable attitude, oblivious of the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and its proper mission which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and equity in all matters.”

Choe accused Guterres of overlooking the US and its allies taking the North’s ICBM test to the UN Security Council, saying, “This clearly proves that he is a puppet of the US.”