▲ This undated file photo provided by Yonhap News TV shows North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

NK FM-UNSC

N. Korean FM slams UNSC meeting over Pyongyang's force-building policy in constitution

SEOUL, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's top diplomat on Saturday criticized a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting convened this week in response to Pyongyang's latest measure to bolster the policy of nuclear force in its constitution, according to the country's state media.

In a statement released through the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui slammed the United States and its follower nations for convening the closed-door UNSC meeting Friday to condemn the actions of North Korea in violation of the country's "sacrosanct constitutional activities and measures to enhance self-defense capabilities."

She said the North strongly condemns the "unlawful and reckless actions of hostile forces, including the U.S., which label our country's legitimate exercise of sovereignty as 'provocation' and 'threat.'"

Choe added that Pyongyang considers such measures as a "direct challenge" to the sovereignty of North Korea.

The minister characterized the North's measures to strengthen the policy of nuclear force-building in the constitution as a means of establishing a "powerful legal instrument to safeguard nuclear sovereignty."

Under the attendance of leader Kim Jong-un earlier this week, the North held a session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA) and unanimously decided to "supplement Article 58 of Chapter 4 of the Socialist Constitution" to ensure the country's right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level.

At an SPA meeting in September last year, North Korea enacted a new nuclear law authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear arms, calling its status as a nuclear state "irreversible."

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