A North Korean diplomat has set off sparks at the United Nations by referring repeatedly, in English, to the Japanese as "Japs" during a General Assembly discussion of its nuclear program.
"The Japs are now turning the whole society to the right to resurrect militarism and fascism with a view to reinvade Korea," Deputy UN Ambassador Kim Chang Guk said at one point, accusing Japan of unfairly pressuring his country over its nuclear ambitions.
Korea was seized by Japan from China in 1895 and became its protectorate and later a Japanese colony, before the country was divided into a North and South. That status ended with Japan's surrender at the close of World War II.
Kim said he used the term "Japs" because a Japanese diplomat had referred incorrectly to his country the day before. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"They used the term 'Japs.' This is a derogatory comment - simply because we used the term 'North Korea,'" Japanese Deputy Ambassador Yoshiyuki Motomura said. "It is a geographical concept and we have no intention of using a derogatory term in this particular sense."
General Assembly President Julian Hunte said he hoped North Korean diplomats "would desist from using this kind of language in this honourable house."
"There have been instances since I assumed the chair when I have really been alarmed at the level of debate in terms of calling names," said Hunte, who is foreign minister of the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia.
"I would wish that on the issue of referring to the Japanese as 'Jap,' that the representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will take this into account," Hunte said.
The remarks were made during a discussion of the annual report of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.
North Korea pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and kicked out IAEA inspectors after the United States said in October 2002 that Pyongyang had admitted to reviving a nuclear weapons program.