“Malaysia urges North Korea to desist from conducting further launches and to comply fully with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, with a view to maintaining regional and worldwide peace and security”, Wisma Putra said in a statement, today.
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North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast on September 5.
Although the United Nations has not yet mentioned any new sanctions on North Korea, President Obama, who was in Laos at the Southeast Asian summit, said Tuesday that tougher sanctions were possible. “More and more North Koreans are coming to South Korea in search of better lives”, said a government official.
North Korea launched the missiles while China was hosting the Group of 20 economic summit, Power said.
Power added that she didn’t anticipate disagreement in the Council since it was able to reach consensus on previous resolutions imposing sanctions on North Korea.
In New York, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, said the United States, Japan and South Korea called a Security Council meeting after the medium-range missiles were fired nearly simultaneously, traveled about 600 miles and landed within 200 miles of Japan’s coast.
South Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador Hahn Choong Hee said the worldwide community should be united in sending a “clear and unequivocal message to North Korea that if they continue to provoke and violate their global commitments and sanctions, they will face much stronger and insurmountable and significant counter-measures from the global community”.
North Korea has become even more isolated after a January nuclear test, its fourth, and the launch of a long-range rocket in February brought tighter U.N. Security Council sanctions that the North subsequently defied with more missile launches.
It already has a variety of land-based missiles that can hit South Korea and Japan, including USA military bases in those countries.
North Korean officials could not be reached for comment.
In June, North Korea tested its fifth and sixth intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
Pyongyang has nevertheless conducted a fourth nuclear test and a series of missile tests this year in defiance of United Nations sanctions, prompting South Korea to announce plans to deploy a U.S. anti-missile system to counter such threats.
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The three missiles were launched a few hours after the leaders of South Korea and China met at the G20 summit held in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The number of North Korean defectors living in South Korea is expected to reach 30,000 late October or early November.
