Washington DC, May 22: North Korea has warned the United States on Tuesday that its “outrageous” seizure of a Pyongyang’s cargo ship could generate consequences over the future of North Korea-US relations.
According to ANI news reports, Kim Song, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) special representative to the United Nations, reiterated Pyongyang’s demand of immediate return of captured cargo ship and stated North Korea was closely watching Washington’s “every move” aiming at bringing maximum pressure on Pyongyang to make it “kneel down”.
The envoy was quoted by Al-Jazeera news as saying, “The United States should deliberate and think over the consequences its outrageous acts might have on the future development.:
At the UN headquarters in New York, Song told reporters the US “committed an unlawful and outrageous act”, on May 9, of dispossessing North Korea’s cargo vessel “Wise Honest”, forcibly taking it to US” Samoa under the pretext of US domestic law violation and unilateral sanctions.
N Korea’s cargo vessel was captured last year in April by Indonesia, but the US justice department announced it on May 9, 2019 for allegedly violating the UN and US sanctions.
Moreover, Song explained the matter as “outright denial of the underlying spirit” of a released joint statement by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump during their first historic summit in Singapore “which committed to establishing new bilateral relations”.
The envoy noted the seizure of the vessel was the “product of an extreme hostile policy of the United States against the DPRK”. He also accused Washington of violating the 2004 UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of state and their property and international law.
North Korea has on Saturday asked the United Nation’s secretary-general Antonio Guterres to deal with the illegal seizure of one of the Korean cargo vessels by the US.
The state-run KCNA media reported that, in a letter sent to UN chief on Friday, the North Korean envoy to the UN said, “This act of dispossession has clearly indicated that the United States is indeed a gangster country that does not care at all about international laws.”
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North Korea denounces cargo ship seizure by US, demands immediate return