However Wednesday’s Security Council meeting produced no consensus for taking any further punitive measures against North Korea.
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Ten Security Council members, along with Australia and South Korea, asked the United Nations sanctions committee to “review carefully the known details” about the July 18 launch of three Scud ballistic missiles and a No Dong intermediate-range missile.
The first missile flew about 1000km before landing in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, marking its third launch since South Korea agreed to deploy a United States advanced, anti-missile system.
But the leader had vowed a “physical response” to a plan to deploy an advanced missile defence system in South Korea.
The statement was issued by the Pentagon after a video conference meeting of the defence officials from the three countries.
“I think we should be looking at every means to convince the North Koreans to come into the fold and to abide by global commitments”, Wilson told reporters.
The controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, which Seoul and Washington agreed last month to deploy in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province, is slated to become operational by the end of 2017.
South Korean officials fear the North is now preparing to conduct a fifth test of a nuclear weapon.
But China’s U.N. Ambassador, Liu Jieyi, said nothing should be done to exacerbate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea often launches its missiles from different sites and fires them for different distances depending on what it wants from each launch.
It’s likely that North Korea uses dummy warheads when it test-launches missiles.
“It is precisely North Korea with its nuclear and rocket programs that was the reason to make this decision”, the spokesman said.
Roh described the move as a “political show” by the conservative government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which wants to build a stronger military by stressing to its people how unsafe North Korean missiles are. Some analysts speculate that Pyongyang can hit the U.S. Pacific Northwest with missiles it now possesses – but that is speculation. South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired a ballistic missile on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016 into the sea.
Believed to be a Rodong missile with a range of 1200 kilometres, the missile fell into the Sea of Japan about 1000 kilometres east of North Korea.
When active, the THAAD system should be able to defend two-thirds of South Korea from an attack by its northern neighbor.
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North Korea is prohibited from developing ballistic missiles under existing United Nations resolutions and despite the adoption of enhanced sanctions in the form of UNSC Resolution 2270 in March, the country has continued to breach sanctions and conduct missile tests. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea and tens of thousands of more in Japan.
