A North Korean parliamentary committee made a rare move Friday, sending a letter of protest to the U.S. House of Representatives over its new package of sanctions.
The missive comes as Pyongyang has been in high-outrage mode for weeks after President Trump threatened the reclusive nation with military action over its ballistic and nuclear weapons tests, and over North Korea’s claims it thwarted a CIA plot to assassinate leader Kim Jong Un with a bomb laced with chemical weapons.
The committee denounced the sanctions as “the most heinous act against humanity that not only infringes upon the sacred sovereignty of (North Korea) but also arbitrarily violates universal principles of sovereign equality and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries which run through the United Nations Charter.” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency published the letter.
Since North Korea and the United States have no formal diplomatic relations and virtually no official channels of communication, it was not immediately clear how the letter was dispatched — if it was sent by mail, email — or even how it was addressed. The was also no immediate word on whether it had been received.
Pyongyang regularly uses pugnacious rhetoric to condemn moves by Washington to censure its activities. A direct complaint to Congress is uncommon.
The parliamentary foreign affairs committee responsible for the letter had been mothballed for almost two decades. Kim recently revived it, a move that could be interpreted as an attempt by Pyongyang to create a “window” for contacts with the outside world, especially with Seoul and Washington, Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Dongguk University, told the Associated Press.
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