UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned North Korea’s “highly provocative” ballistic missile test on Friday and demanded that Pyongyang immediately halt its “outrageous actions” and demonstrate its commitment to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
The U.N.’s most powerful body accused North Korea of undermining regional peace and security by launching its latest missile over Japan and said its nuclear and missile tests “have caused grave security concerns around the world” and threaten all 193 U.N. member states.
North Korea’s longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile early Friday from Sunan, the location of Pyongyang’s international airport, signaled both defiance of North Korea’s rivals and a big technological advance. After hurtling over Japan, it landed in the northern Pacific Ocean.
Since U.S. President Donald 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 strike deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.
The intermediate-range missile test came four days after the Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on the North for its Sept. 3 missile test including a ban on textile exports and natural gas imports — and caps on its import of oil and petroleum products. The U.S. said the latest sanctions, combined with previous measures, would ban over 90 percent of North Korea’s exports reported in 2016, its main source of hard currency used to finance its nuclear and missile programs.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry denounced the sanctions and said it would “redouble its efforts to increase its strength to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and right to existence.”
The Security Council stressed in Friday’s press statement after a closed-door emergency meeting that all countries must “fully, comprehensively and immediately” implement all U.N. sanctions.
Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho called the launch an “outrageous act” that is not only a threat to Japan’s security but a threat to the world as a whole.”
Bessho and the British, French and Swedish ambassadors demanded that all sanctions be implemented.
Calling the latest launch a “terrible, egregious, illegal, provocative reckless act,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said North Korea’s largest trading partners and closest links — a clear reference to China — 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 is ready to work on tougher U.N. and EU measures to convince Pyongyang that there is no interest in an escalation, and to bring it to the negotiating table. It said North Korea will also be discussed during next week’s annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly.
The Security Council also emphasized the importance of North Korea working to reduce tension in the Korean Peninsula — and it reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the territory divided between authoritarian North Korea and democratic South Korea.
The council welcomed efforts by its members and other countries “to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution” to the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, strongly backed the need for dialogue saying the U.S. needs to start talks with North Korea.
Nebenzia said that Russia called on the U.S. and others to implement the “political and diplomatic solutions” called for in the sanctions.
