Secretary General is accused of being \u2018reckless\u2019 and toeing the US line<\/b>
\nNorth Korea on Friday accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of making \u201creckless remarks\u201d and toeing the US line when he called for verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
Guterres made the statement following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Wednesday to discuss the US-led effort to rid North Korea of its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
The UN chief \u201cshould do what is beneficial to the current situation on Korean peninsula for peace and stability, not just by singing (the) chorus for sanctions to please (a) certain country,\u201d said a statement from the North Korean mission to the United Nations.
The mission described as \u201creckless\u201d a remark from Guterres who said that North Korea \u201ccan be a normal member of the international community in this region through total denuclearisation that is verifiable, irreversible.\u201d
The statement said North Korea was \u201castonished\u201d to hear Guterres\u2019 remarks \u201cat a time when the world supports and welcomes the historic DPRK-US summit and the joint statement in Singapore.\u201d
At the first-ever meeting between sitting leaders of the US and North Korea in June, US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un pledged in a joint statement to work toward the \u201ccomplete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.\u201d
The statement however was short on details and a UN panel of experts reported last week that North Korea is pressing ahead with its nuclear and missile programmes.
The United States, backed by Japan, is urging UN member-states to maintain pressure on North Korea to give up its military programmes by fully adhering to a raft of sanctions.
Trump\u2019s administration has argued that sanctions must remain fully in place until North Korea has scrapped its nuclear and missile programmes and that the dismantling is verified.
The Security Council last year adopted three rounds of tough economic sanctions on North Korea, banning most of its exports of raw commodities and severely restricting oil supplies.<\/p>\n