US envoy tells UN North Korea is ‘begging for war’

United States says it does not want conflict but its ‘patience is not unlimited’

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is “begging for war”, the US ambassador has said at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

Ambassador Nikki Haley said the US would look at countries doing business with the North and planned to circulate a resolution this week with the goal of getting it approved by September 11.

“Enough is enough. War is never something the United States wants. We don’t want it now. But our country’s patience is not unlimited,” Ms Haley said.

“The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country, that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions.”

The move came as US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and agreed that Sunday’s underground nuclear test by North Korea was a grave provocation that was “unprecedented”.

The two leaders also agreed to remove the limit on the payload of South Korean missiles.

Scheduled after North Korea said it detonated the hydrogen bomb, the emergency UN session also came six days after the council strongly condemned what it called Pyongyang’s “outrageous” launch of a ballistic missile over Japan.

Less than a month ago, the council imposed its stiffest sanctions yet on the reclusive nation.

But the US resolution faces an uncertain future. Russia and China have both proposed a two-pronged approach: North Korea would suspend its nuclear and missile development, and the United States and South Korea would suspend their joint military exercises.

Washington and Seoul say the manoeuvres are defensive, but Pyongyang views them as a rehearsal for invasion.

Clockwise from main picture: a missile is fired during an exercise in South Korea; Kim Jong Un; Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, speaks to Chinese ambassador Liu Jieyi.