In a relatively mild speech, North Korea uses UN platform to lament ‘mutual distrust’ and tension

North Korea used its yearly U.N. platform on Monday to warn other world leaders of “a harsh reality rampant with unprecedented mutual distrust and confrontation,” but said that it would endure and, in a multilateral world, “surely attain all that we plan to, relying entirely on our own efforts.”

It was, by Pyongyang’s standards, a relatively mild speech that contained no direct threats.

The annual opportunity for the country, whose formal name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to speak on the world stage fell this year to Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong. Like many nations, he touted the notion of U.N.-focused multilateralism, yet repeatedly insisted that North Korea could — and would, if necessary — go it alone.

“Gone are the days when an individual member state unilaterally imposed its will on the rest of the world and dominated the international political arena,” Kim said. “Instead, multilateralism and multipolarization have emerged as an irresistible aspiration and trend of the times based on justice and equity.”

North Korea is frequently at odds with South Korea, Japan and the United States, which are tightly aligned in matters of security in East Asia. Kim asserted once again that his nation…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world