North Korea on Thursday accused United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of "picking a quarrel" with Pyongyang by praising international sanctions for putting pressure on the country over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
North Korea's U.N. mission said in a statement that Guterres had made "reckless remarks" during a speech last week to the Munich Security Conference.
"This is nothing but an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as Secretary-General of the United Nations and only make us to think whether he is a kind of henchman who is representing the United States," the North Korean U.N. mission said.