US: North Korea missile tests ‘deeply counterproductive’

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The United States warned North Korea Wednesday that its “deeply counterproductive” ballistic missile tests risk closing the door on prospects

for negotiating peace but said it is “prepared to be flexible” and take concrete, parallel steps with Pyongyang toward an agreement.

US Ambassador Kelly Craft delivered the message at a Security Council meeting less than three weeks before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s end-of-December deadline for the Trump administration to come up with new proposals to revive nuclear diplomacy.

Negotiations faltered after the US rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of the North’s nuclear capabilities at Kim’s second summit with US President Donald Trump last February. North Korea has carried out 13 ballistic missile launches since May to pressure Washington, and has hinted at lifting its moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests if the Trump administration fails to make substantial concessions before the new year.

Craft warned North Korea that “the United States and the Security

Council have a goal, not a deadline” of working toward peace, healing the wounds of the Korean War, and achieving the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, a vision that Kim and Trump agreed to at their first summit in Singapore in June, 2018.

The United States wants to make “crystal clear” to North Korea “that its continued ballistic missile testing is deeply counterproductive” to Trump’s and Kim’s shared objectives, she said. “These actions also risk closing the door on this opportunity to find a better way for the future.”

Craft cited North Korean threats to take a “new path” in the coming weeks and its hints of “a resumption of serious provocations,” which she said would mean they could launch space vehicles using long-range ballistic missile technology or test intercontinental ballistic missiles “which are designed to attack the continental United States with nuclear weapons.”

The United States trusts that North Korea “will turn away from further hostility and threats, and instead make a bold decision to engage with us,” she said. “If events prove otherwise, we, this Security Council, must all be prepared to act accordingly.”

The council met for the second time in a week on North Korea’s increasing ballistic missile and nuclear-related activities, this time at the request of the United States, which effectively blocked a council discussion on the North’s dismal human rights situation expected on Tuesday.

Stephen Biegun, the Trump administration’s special representative for North Korea, briefed the 15 council members over a private lunch but left Craft to address the open council meeting.

North Korea didn’t speak at the meeting but key ally China called on Washington and Pyongyang to work together to keep tensions from escalating, and to nurture the rapprochement they had made over the last two years.

“Seize the hard-earned opportunity,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said, calling on the two sides “to prevent the dialogue process from derailing or backSalle pedaling.”

Zhang called the current situation “very complicated” and “fragile” saying “the top priority is to resume dialogue of the two parties directly concerned, and avoid any confrontational actions.”

“It’s good to hear that the US is still willing to be engaged in dialogues,” he said. “But meanwhile both parties should continue to walk towards each other and then to accommodate the concern from the other side and to build up confidence and trust.”