North Korea accuses U.N. Security Council of 'double standard' over missile tests

FILE PHOTO: A North Korea flag flutters next to concertina wire at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday that the U.N. Security Council showed a double standard as its sanctions committee criticised the country's recent missile test as a violation of U.N. resolutions.

North Korea launched a new type of tactical short-range ballistic missile last week, prompting Washington to request a gathering of the U.N. Security Council's (UNSC) sanctions committee.

At the committee meeting on Friday, the United States called for imposing additional sanctions and tightening the implementation of existing measures, denouncing the test as a violation of U.N. resolutions, according to Jo Chol Su, director-general for international organisations at North Korea's foreign ministry.

Jo said the meeting was "designed to negate the right of our state to self-defence," warning it would devise a "countermeasure."

"It constitutes a denial of sovereign state and an apparent double standard that UNSC takes issue, on the basis of the U.N. 'resolutions' - direct products of the U.S. hostile policy," Jo said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

"It does not make any sense that only our righteous self-defensive measure should be singled out for denunciation, when many other countries across the globe are firing all kinds of projectiles for the purpose of increasing their military strength."

The statement came after North Korea said on Saturday that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden had taken a wrong first step and revealed "deep-seated hostility" by criticising its self-defensive missile test.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)