UN condemns ‘outrageous’ missile test

THE United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile over Japan, calling its actions “outrageous”.

The UN’s most powerful body reiterated demands for Pyongyang to halt its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes, after an emergency meeting on the missile test. The missile flight came less than a month after the council imposed its toughestyet sanctions on North Korea.

A statement issued by the council after the meeting did not discuss any potential new sanctions, but called for the strict implementation of existing ones.

“The Security Council, resolute in its commitment to a denuclearised Korean Peninsula, emphasises the vital importance of immediate, concrete actions by the DPRK to reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula and beyond,” the council said, using an acronym for the nation’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The council also said it was committed to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation.

North Korea is not on the 15-member council. While it was meeting in New York, Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un expressed “great satisfaction” with the launch and called for more missile tests targeting the Pacific Ocean.