A North Korean official has again criticized President Park Geun-hye's recent speech at the UN General Assembly.
 
In an interview with Voice of America, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myung-guk, who visited New York to attend the General Assembly with the North's Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong, blasted the South Korean leader.
 
The vice foreign minister said President Park’s speech triggered war on the Korean Peninsula by expressing a commitment to unification through absorption reliant on a foreign power.
 
On Tuesday, the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said the president’s UN speech ruined recent improvements in South-North relations, adding that planned inter-Korean family reunions are now in a precarious state.
 
During her keynote speech at the General Assembly, the president criticized North Korea for pursuing further provocations, urging the regime to take the path of economic development through reform and openness.
 
In the latest interview, the North's vice foreign minister did not mention family reunions or a remark by the North Korean ambassador to London who threatened the U.S. with a nuclear attack if a war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.
 
But the vice minister reiterated a call made by Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong at the UN on Thursday that Washington must reach a decision on converting the armistice agreement on the peninsula into a peace treaty.