North Korea slams European countries for criticizing missile launches

North Korea accused European nations of “illogical thinking” on Saturday after they called a closed-door UN Security Council meeting to condemn missile launches by the reclusive state earlier this week.

Britain, Germany, France, Estonia and Belgium raised North Korea’s latest missile firings at the UN Security Council on Thursday, calling them a provocative action that violated UN resolutions. North Korea fired two short-range missiles off the east coast into the sea on Monday after a three-month halt. The launches, which officials have said were routine military drills, were personally overseen by its leader Kim Jong Un.

“The illogical thinking and sophism of these countries are just gradually bearing a close resemblance to the United States, which is hostile to us,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement to the state-run KCNA news agency. The unnamed spokesperson described the European action as “reckless behaviour ... instigated by the United States.”