UN Security Council divided over missiles

Debate over how to handle a North Korean ballistic missile launch over Japanese territory split an already deeply fractured U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, with Russia and China insisting that U.S.-led military exercises in the region had provoked North Korea into acting.

Wednesday’s session ended with no agreement on next steps, despite warnings from the U.S. and its allies that the council’s inability to reach consensus on North Korea’s record number of missile launches this year was emboldening North Korea and undermining the authority of the United Nations’ most powerful body.

“This council should be mindful that it is being tested and its credibility is at stake. This council should act, and produce an action that restores its credibility,” said Hiroshi Minami, Japan’s deputy representative to the U.N. and one of those unsuccessfully urging the council back into its formerly unified stand over North Korea’s launches.

North Korea’s missile flight Tuesday was its longest-range weapons test ever, a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that soared over Japan and had enough punch to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam and beyond. It forced the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.

The U.N. said the North Korea’s unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches this year, now numbering more than 40, comes as North Korea also appears to be moving toward a seventh test nuclear blast. Early Thursday, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters just 22 minutes apart, officials said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to develop a fully fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening the U.S. mainland and the territory of U.S. allies, with a goal of wresting concessions from those countries, some experts say.

Tuesday’s launch was the first that Kim has aimed over Japan since 2017. It came within days of a U.S.-led military exercise in the Sea of Japan with allies Japan and South Korea. The exercise included a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier.

BEBETO MATTHEWS/AP Japan’s United Nations Ambassador, Kimihiro Ishikane, addresses a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss North Korea’s ballistic missile test Wednesday at U.N. headquarters.