U.N. takes up N. Korea after latest missile test
Security Council condemns ‘highly provocative’ act.
After North Korea conducted its longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile Friday, the U.N. Security Council met in emergency session to talk about what to do now that Kim Jong Un has ignored its latest round of sanctions.
It condemned North Korea’s “highly provocative” launch of a ballistic missile over Japan and urged Pyongyang to take immedi- ate action to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. In a press statement, it also stressed that all 193 U.N. member states must “fully, comprehensively and immediately” implement the sanctions.
The intermediate-range weapon, launched from Sunan, the location of Pyongyang’s international airport, hurtled over Japan into the northern Pacific Ocean. It signaled both defiance of North Korea’s rivals and a big technological advance.
Japan’s U.N. ambassador, Koro Bessho, told reporters the launch “is, of course, a grave threat to our own security but ... it is a real threat to the peace and security of the world as a whole.”
Bessho urged all countries to implement sanc- tions against North Korea, including measures adopted four days ago in response to Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test, which it said was of a hydrogen bomb. The United States said those sanctions combined with previous measures would ban over 90 percent of North Korea’s reported exports.
In a clear reference to China, British U.N. Ambassa- dor Matthew Rycroft said all countries, especially North Korea’s largest trading partners and closest links, must “demonstrate that they are doing everything in their power to implement the sanctions of the Security Council and to encourage the North Korean regime to change course.”
France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the country was ready to work on tougher U.N. and EU measures “to convince the regime in Pyongyang that there is no interest in an escalation, and to bring it to the nego- tiating table.” It said North Korea will also be discussed during next week’s annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly, when President Donald Trump is scheduled to give his debut U.N. speech.
Since 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 U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam and launched two missiles of increasing range over Japan. July saw the country’s first tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles that could eventually strike deep into the U.S. mainland.
The growing frequency, power and confidence displayed by these tests seem to confirm what governments and outside experts have long feared: North Korea is closer than ever to building an arsenal that can viably target U.S. troops both in Asia and in the U.S. homeland.