Kim Jong-un’s sister slams ‘barking dog’ US over UN condemnation of North Korea’s missile tests

Kim Yo-jong dubs comments of US and Western allies ‘a disgusting joint statement’

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has warned the US that it will face a “more fatal security crisis” after Wahington pushed for UN condemnation of an intercontinental ballistic missile test.

Kim Yo-jong issued the warning hours after US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Washington would circulate a proposed presidential statement condemning North Korea’s recent missile launches.

During the meeting, there were many calls for condemnation of the state’s first successful launch of the new Hwasong-17 missile, which is capable of reaching North America.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield read a statement by 14 countries that supported action to limit North Korea’s advancement of its weapons programmes.

Ms Kim, considered to be the second-most powerful person in North Korea, compared the US to a ”barking dog seized with fear”, while lambasting what she called “a disgusting joint statement together with such rabbles as Britain, France, Australia, Japan and South Korea”.

She added that North Korea would consider the US-led joint statement a “wanton violation of our sovereignty and a grave political provocation”.

“The UNSC has turned blind eyes to the very dangerous military drills of the US and South Korea and their greedy arms build-up aiming at the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and taken issue with the DPRK’s exercise of its inviolable right to self-defence,” she said in a statement.

“The US should be mindful that, no matter how desperately it might seek to disarm [North Korea], it can never deprive [North Korea] of its right to self-defence and that the more hell-bent it gets on the anti-[North Korea] acts it will face a more fatal security crisis.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, and his daughter inspect a missile at Pyongyang International Airport

Earlier on Monday, North Korea's foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, called UN secretary general Antonio Guterres “a puppet of the United States”.

The UNSC meeting was convened in response to North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch on Friday. Pyongyang has been testing a record number of missiles this year in what is seen to be a provocative tactic aimed to be used as leverage in future diplomacy with the US.

Friday’s test involved its most powerful Hwasong-17 missile, with some experts saying the successful steep-angle launch proved its potential to strike anywhere on the US mainland.

During the meeting, the US and its allies strongly condemned the missile launch and called for action against North Korea to limit its nuclear and missile programmes. Ms Thomas-Greenfield said it was vital that the 15-member Security Council responded with one voice.

However, Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the UNSC, opposed any new pressure and sanctions on North Korea.

“These two members’ blatant obstructionism puts the northeast Asian region, and the entire world, at risk,” Ms Thomas-Greenfield told the council.