[1/4] People watch a TV broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing what it called a space satellite toward the south, in Seoul, South Korea, May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiSEOUL, June 4 (Reuters) - North Korea denounced the U.N. Security Council for holding a meeting on its recent satellite launch upon "robbery demands" from the U.S., vowing to continue rejecting sanctions and taking "self-defensive" action, state media KCNA said on Sunday. She said the satellite launch was a "legitimate, self-defensive countermeasure" against increasing threats from the U.S. and its allies, which Pyongyang have accused of rekindling tension with their annual springtime military drills. North Korea will never acknowledge U.N. sanctions resolutions "even if they slap them hundred, thousand times," she said, pledging to continue exercising its sovereign rights, including launching spy satellites. North Korea had informed the IMO of a time frame of its planned satellite launch, and the resolution "strongly" condemned the isolated country's missile tests "which seriously threatened the safety of seafarers and international shipping."

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Persons: Kim Hong, Ji, KCNA, Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un, Kim, Kim Myong Chol, Hyonhee Shin, Nick Zieminski Organizations: REUTERS, . Security, UNSC, KCNA, International Maritime, Thomson Locations: North Korea, Seoul, South Korea, Ji SEOUL, U.S, United States, Pyongyang, Korea