Power said North Korea has carried out 22 missile launches so far this year and the latest hit “within 300 kilometers of Japan’s coast”.
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The press statement urged all United Nations member states “to redouble their efforts” to implement sanctions against Pyongyang, including the toughest measures in two decades imposed by the council in March.
Park told reporters Tuesday that North Korea missile program is “fundamentally threatening the security” of the Korean Peninsula and both leaders defended its position as defensive.
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.
North Korea launched the missiles while China was hosting the Group of 20 economic summit, she said.
China has angrily denounced plans for the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD system, whose radars it says will allow the U.S. military to peer deep into northeastern China.
The UNSC also threatened to take “further significant measures” on top of March’s strengthened sanctions against North Korea – echoing a similar warning late last month after the North carried out a submarine-launched ballistic missile test.
The U.N.’s most powerful body agreed to the tough statement hours after a closed-door emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss the three launches which landed near Japan.
Yang Uk, a South Korean defense and security expert, said Monday’s missile test appeared aimed in part to show that the North is capable of firing off multiple projectiles from mobile launchers, which are harder to detect in advance. “And President Park and I agreed that the entire global community needs to implement these sanctions fully and hold North Korea accountable”.
North Korea’s leader, meanwhile, declared Monday’s launch a success and promised to continue “bolstering up the nuclear force”.
Earlier, the USA called on the council to further enforce its previous resolutions aimed at blocking the North’s ballistic missile tests.
“There were very strong and numerous voices in the room for doing more”, she said. It requires countries to freeze the assets of companies linked to the North’s nuclear and missile programs.
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In the statement, the Security Council members also reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in North-East Asia at large and expressed their commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation.
