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DPRK Pulls Out of Millennium Summit in Protest Against U.S.
Li Hyong Chol, ambassador of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations, said Tuesday that his country had decided to pull out of the Millennium Summit in protest against the "rude and provocative treatment" by the U.S. to its delegation.
Speaking to the press, Ambassador Li Hyong Chol said Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, and his entourage who were in transit in Frankfurt airport on their way to the Millennium Summit were compelled to cancel their participation in the summit and return home due to the unjust obstructive maneuvers of the U.S. side.
The ambassador said that on September 4, the president and his entourage were just about to go on board American Airline flight AA 172 bound for New York after passing through all departure procedures in accordance with the recognized regulations at Frankfurt airport in Germany.
At that time, U.S. air security officials turned up, opened suitcases and handbags of each member of the presidential entourage, forced them to take off clothes and shoes and thoroughly searched even the sensitive part of the body, and they attempted to impose such rude search even on the president, the ambassador said.
"This rude and provocative act of the U.S. done to the president of the Presidium representing the DPRK, a dignified member state of the U.N., constitutes grave encroachment on the sovereignty of a sovereign state, violation of and insult to the human rights and flagrant challenge to the exercise of the rights of the U.N. member state conforming to the U.N. Charter and to the U.N. itself as well as to the summit organized by it," the ambassador said.
"It is also an arrogant and rude act ignoring the international laws and practices," the ambassador said.
"We strongly denounce this unjust act of the U.S. as an outrageous violation of and challenge to the U.N. Charter and to the first ever Millennium Summit held in the history of the U.N.," he said.
"The U.S. side should make an official apology for its act committed against the president of the Presidium and take full responsibility for all consequences resulting therefrom," the ambassador added.
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