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| ▲ Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the Department of State, is seen answering questions in a daily press briefing at the department in Washington on Oct. 17, 2022 in this image captured from the department's website. (Yonhap) |
US-NK provocation
Accusations that U.S. provoked N. Korean missile tests 'baloney': State Dept.
By Byun Duk-kun
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- A spokesperson for the U.S. state department on Monday dismissed a claim made by North Korea and its friendly nations that the North's recent missile tests had been provoked by the United States, calling it "baloney."
Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the department, also reiterated that the North's recent missile tests and other provocative actions are "condemnable."
"As it relates to the DPRK, I think you saw last week when there was a U.N. Security Council hearing on this. You saw the PRC, Russia and other countries parrot this false claim that U.S. provocations were the origination of these ballistic missile launchers or anything like that," the spokesperson said, referring to North Korea and China by their official names -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China."
"That's baloney and absolutely not the case," he added.
North Korea staged eight rounds of ballistic missile tests in less than three weeks from late last month.
Pyongyang blamed joint military exercises of South Korea and the U.S. for causing it to conduct such tests in response.
China and Russia, both veto power-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, repeated the North Korean claim at the U.N. Security Council meeting, effectively blocking U.S.-led efforts to impose additional sanctions on North Korea.
"You saw me speak to this quite clearly last week that the recent ballistic missile launches the other kinds of aggravation and provocation that we're seeing are condemnable," said Patel.
"These specific ballistic missile launches are in clear violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, and beyond the violation of resolutions, these kinds of activities, they pose a very serious threat to the region and to the world more broadly," he added.
The department official said the U.S. will continue to take necessary actions, together with its allies.
"So what the United States is going to continue to do is we are going to continue to stay engaged with our allies, the Republic of Korea and Japan. We are going to continue to have diplomatic engagements with them and take appropriate actions as necessary," he said.
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