UN council unanimously slams N Korea missile tests Talking not the answer, says Trump
THE UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile over Japan as an “outrageous” threat and demanded that the country not launch any more missiles and abandon all nuclear weapons and programmes.
In a statement, the Security Council said it was of “vital importance” that North Korea take immediate, concrete actions to reduce tensions and called on all states to implement UN sanctions on North Korea.
The council also expressed “its commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution”.
“The Security Council stresses that these DPRK [North Korean] actions are not just a threat to the region, but to all UN member states,” said the statement, issued after closed-door talks at UN headquarters.
“The Security Council expresses its grave concern that the DPRK is, by conducting such a launch over Japan as well as its recent actions and public statements, deliberately undermining regional peace and stability.”
However, the US-drafted statement, which was agreed by consensus, does not threaten new sanctions on North Korea. Diplomats say China and Russia — two veto-wielding council members — typically only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible UN sanctions.
China is working with other members of the Security Council on a response to North Korea’s missile launch, the Chinese foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Wang Yi spoke just hours after the UN condemnation and Japan’s UN ambassador suggested that a new sanctions declaration could come next.
He said China — which is North Korea’s only major ally — was “now working with other members of the Security Council to discuss the recent developments of the situation”.
He said that “based on the consensus of Security Council members, we are going to make a necessary response to the recent test launch of the missile”.
But Wang did not specify whether a fresh set of sanctions was looming.
“Whether there will be new measures going forward, that should be discussed by the Security Council and WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says that “talking is not the answer” when it comes to North Korea. And he’s claiming the US has been paying North Koreans what he calls “extortion money” for decades.
“The US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, adding: “Talking is not the answer!”
The tweet comes on the heels of the North’s recent missile test over Japan, a close American ally.
Trump’s tweet did not spell out what he meant by
consensus needs to be formed,” he said.
The Security Council earlier this month unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea that could cut by a third the country’s $3bn annual export revenue after it staged two long-range missile launches in July.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.
Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said that while China — North Korea’s close ally and neighbour — approved the statement, it had also criticised ongoing joint US-South Korea military exercises which North Korea sees as a threat.
“So while agreeing to condemn North Korea and also agreeing to enforce previous UN sanctions on that country, China making very clear as well that [they believe] there are other duties that some of the Security Council member states could exercise to help defuse the situation within that region,” he said.
“But generally, a clear signal of Security Council unity and a very important signal that China has confirmed it will help enforce the execution of sanctions already in place, and this is the critical issue.”
Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called “extortion” in the current standoff over North Korea’s nuclear programme, and the White House did not immediately respond to questions.
North Korea has in the past temporarily halted nuclear development when the US and others provided food aid or other types of compensation. But the North hasn’t been making such demands, at least publicly, since Trump came into office.
Instead, it has been focused on finishing its decadeslong effort to master the technology for fitting a nuclear warhead on a missile that can striking the US mainland,
on Wednesday for more weapons tests targeting the Pacific Ocean.
Tuesday’s missile launch — likely the longest ever from North Korea — over the territory of a close US ally sends a clear message of defiance as the US and South Korea conduct war games nearby.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said it was a Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile that the North first successfully tested in May and threatened to fire into waters near Guam earlier this month.
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over the launch that he called a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam, which is home to key US military bases that North Korea finds threatening, the agency said. He also said the country will continue to watch “US demeanours” before it decides on future actions.
Kim also said it’s “necessary to positively push forward the work for putting the strategic force on a modern basis by conducting more ballistic rocket launching drills with the Pacific as a target in the future.”
The launch seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to target the US territory of Guam if it chooses to do so, while also establishing calling such capability essential for its national defence.
Trump’s assessment about the need for dialogue also appears at odds with his top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had in recent weeks been softening the conditions for a possible, formal dialogue with Pyongyang. The US also has been maintaining a diplomatic back channel with North Korea.
Trump offered a surprisingly subdued response to Pyongyang’s latest missile test on Tuesday, avoiding a repeat of his bombastic warnings earlier this month of a potential military confrontation. — AFP
a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future missiles flying over Japan. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile travelled around 2 700km and reached a maximum height of 550km as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The KCNA said the flight test was a countermeasure to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea that run through to today. Pyongyang views the annual war games between the allies as invasion rehearsals.
In a statement, US President Donald Trump said North Korea had signalled its “contempt for its neighbours” and that “all options are on the table” in terms of a US response.
Any new test worries Washington and its allies because it presumably puts North Korea a step closer to its goal of an arsenal of nuclear missiles that can reliably target the US.
Tuesday’s test, however, looks especially aggressive to Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
North Korea has conducted launches at an unusually fast pace this year — 13 times, Seoul says —and some analysts believe it could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of Trump’s first term in early 2021. — Al Jazeera LUSAKA — Zambia’s main opposition leader on Tuesday vowed to forgive his political opponents and not seek revenge following four months in jail for allegedly failing to give way to the presidential motorcade.
Hakainde Hichilema addressed a prayer meeting two weeks after his release from prison telling thousands of worshippers he did not harbour hatred against the authorities after he was brutally arrested in April.
“Despite the injustices that we went through, we harbour no hatred and we do hereby forgive . . . all,” he said.
“And there are many who were involved in our brutal arrest and subsequent detention,” the leader of the United Party for National Development (UPND) told jubilant crowds at the capital city’s Anglican cathedral.
“We are Christians and it is therefore imperative that we love one another. We should not be paying evil for evil. We should strive to live at peace with all men,” he said.
Hichilema had claimed in April that he was assaulted by police during his arrest when more than 100 armed police surrounded his house outside Lusaka, firing tear gas before taking him into custody.
Nicknamed “HH”, he had been charged with treason for allegedly blocking President Edgar Lungu’s motorcade.
He was released on August 16 after the charges were dropped.
A planned appearance at the capital’s Anglican cathedral was blocked by heavily armed police on August 24.
Hichilema, who disputes the results of last year’s election, which he narrowly lost, and refuses to recognise Lungu as the president, also complained of the inhumane conditions in Zambian prisons. — AFP