DPRK Accuses US of Blocking Leader to UN Summit

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) denounced the United States on Tuesday for blocking Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, from attending the new millennium U.N. Summit scheduled in New York from September 6 to 8.

In a public statement, the Foreign Ministry said Kim and his party had to cancel their trip on Monday en route to New York owing to obstructive moves of the US administration authorities.

It added that the United States would have to pay a dear price for having hurt the dignity of the Korean people.

When Kim and his party were about to board a US passenger plane in Frankfurt, Germany to travel to New York to attend the summit, American air security agents unexpectedly showed up at the airport, claiming that upon an order from their country, they would inspect the members of the delegation including Kim and their belongings because the DPRK was a "rogue nation," according to the statement.

It said that the act violated the international usage of travel and neglected the elementary etiquette and morality for a state leader, and accordingly, it constituted an unbearable mockery of the sovereignty of an independent state and a grave challenge to the United Nations and the summit organized by it.

Under the pretext of "safe flight," the US authorities, after issuing entry visas to the delegation, inviting it to receptions to be given during the summit and agreeing to have DPRK-US high-level contacts, blocked the delegation on its way to New York, the statement said.

This suggested that the hostile policy of the US towards the DPRK had not changed even a bit but was getting more despicable and crafty, it said.

The statement noted that this event clearly demonstrated that though the US was proposing a number of talks and talking about "improved relations" with the DPRK, it was, in fact, displeased with the DPRK's opening of relations with other countries.



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