Congress, Left Leaders Meet North Korean Envoy As India Criticises Pyongyang’s ICBM Test

Leaders from the Congress and the communist parties met North Korean embassy officials in New Delhi while India criticised the reclusive regime’s test of nuclear-capable Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and called on the world “to hold accountable all those parties that have supported these programmes”.

In a statement released earlier this month, New Delhi had said that these tests “also impacted India’s national security” and had called on Pyongyang to exercise restraint amid rising tensions with the United States. North Korea had successfully test fired its first ever ICBM, that can also carry nuclear warheads, on 4 July.

India’s criticism was seen as an attempt to target Pakistan and China, who have helped North Korea over the years to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems. Pakistan is known to have provided North Korea enriched uranium and technical know-how in return for nuclear missile technology in the nineties. India’s criticism also comes amid improving relations with the US, which has been mounting pressure on China to help rein in North Korea’s nuclear programme.

The Left parties, who are a part of the India-Korea Friendship Association, are at the forefront of the Opposition’s outreach to North Korea.

Not long ago, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had met the Chinese envoy to India amid rising tensions at the Sikkim-Tibet-Bhutan tri-junction. Today, the Communist Party of India - Marxist in its mouthpiece People’s Democracy blamed India’s growing strategic ties with the US for the deteriorating relations with China and asked New Delhi to “let Bhutan take the lead in negotiating with China on the Doklam Plateau”.

The Opposition, it seems, is bent on taking an approach averse to the one that the government takes in the interest of national security.