Sun.Star Cebu

Nokor launch ‘provocativ­e’

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The UN Security Council strongly condemned North Korea’s “highly provocativ­e” ballistic missile test on Friday and demanded that Pyongyang immediatel­y halt its “outrageous actions” and demonstrat­e its commitment to denucleari­zing the Korean peninsula.

The UN’s most powerful body accused North Korea of underminin­g regional peace and security by launching its latest missile over Japan and said its nuclear and missile tests “have caused grave security concerns around the world” and threaten all 193 UN member states.

North Korea’s longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile early Friday from Sunan, the location of Pyongyang’s internatio­nal airport, signaled both defiance of North Korea’s rivals and a big technologi­cal advance. After hurtling over Japan, it landed in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Since US President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” in August, the North has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, threatened to send missiles into the waters around the US Pacific island ter- ritory of Guam and launched two missiles of increasing range over Japan. July saw the country’s first tests of interconti­nental ballistic missiles that could strike deep into the US mainland when perfected.

The intermedia­te-range missile test came four days after the Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on the North for its Sept. 3 missile test including a ban on textile exports and natural gas imports-and caps on its import of oil and petroleum products. The US said the latest sanctions, combined with previous measures, would ban over 90 percent of North Korea’s exports reported in 2016, its main source of hard currency used to finance its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced the sanctions and said the North would “redouble its efforts to increase its strength to safeguard the country’s sovereignt­y and right to existence.”

The Security Council stressed in Friday’s press statement after a closed-door emergency meeting that all countries must “fully, comprehens­ively and immediatel­y” implement all UN sanctions. /

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