North Korea’s ambassador to the UN on Tuesday demanded the return of a DPRK cargo ship recently seized by Washington, in a rare press conference at the UN’s headquarters in New York.

Ambassador Kim Song protested the seizure of the DPRK-flagged Wise Honest on May 9, with Washington impounding ship as payments made to support it had been cleared through the U.S. financial system.

The North Korean diplomat called the unilateral seizure illegal and condemned it under “strongest terms,” though the complaint was similar in language to an earlier statement from the DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

“The horrible