Finland summons DPRK envoy over missile test

Finland on Wednesday summoned the North Korean ambassador over the latest missile test and strongly criticised the incident, the national broadcaster Yle reported on Wednesday.

The Finnish Foreign Ministry Director General Kimmo Lähdevirta expressed concern to the DPRK envoy Kang Yong Dok at the missile test and urged Pyongyang to “immediately cease” any “further provocations aggravating the situation”.

North Korea test-fired a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile.

Based in Stockholm, Kang Yong Dok has been representing Pyongyang to all the five Nordic countries as well as Latvia and Lithuania since 2014.

The Yle report said Finnish officials may have taken advantage of his arrival in Helsinki to attend the Independence Day Ball at the Presidential Palace to which ambassadors are usually invited.

“The only way to de-escalate tensions on the Korea peninsular is to root out the US nuclear threat to DPRK and roll back US anti-DPRK policy,” said the report quoting the ambassador as saying. Kang Yong Dok also termed the missile test as self defence.

In September President Sauli Niinistö said, “The North Korean nuclear weapons programme is a threat to global peace, and it must be stopped.”

“The United Nations Security Council’s co-operation on North Korea has been successful. It is important that unity prevails,” Niinistö said in his address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Referring to the “continued provocations” by North Korea, he said such behaviour can’t be tolerated and Finland, as part of the European Union, stands firmly behind the sanctions and calls on others to do the same.