On Tuesday the U.N. Security Council once again strongly condemned the North’s missile launches and threatened “further significant measures” if Pyongyang refuses to stop its nuclear and missile tests.
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Park also said the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2270 will help deter the advancement of North Korea’s nuclear and missile capacity.
The South’s President Park Geun-hye held talks with American counterpart Barack Obama in Laos on the eve of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit – the first meeting between the leaders since Seoul and Washington announced in July that they would deploy a contentious anti-missile system against the wishes of both North Korea and China.
Obama also said the us was still open to the possibility of talks with North Korea if it were to recognize its global obligations and work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
In spite of tough global sanctions, Pyongyang continues to ignore the worldwide community’s calls for a halt to its weapons programme.
Asked whether China agreed more significant measures needed to be taken, permanent British representative to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft, said: “We’re talking to all of our council colleagues”.
The missiles likely landed in the sea 200 to 250 km (120 to 160 miles) west of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern-most main island, sources at Japan’s defense ministry said Monday.
South Korea has increased its defense budget for next year by 4 percent to strengthen missile defense capabilities against growing threats from North Korea.
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”.
A Joint Chiefs of Staff statement described the launches as an “armed protest” meant to demonstrate North Korea’s military capability on the occasion of the G-20 summit and days before the North Korean government’s 68th anniversary.
The UN Security Council imposed strong sanctions against North Korea in March, following nuclear and long-range missile tests by the country in January and February, respectively.
The UN has adopted five rounds of crippling sanctions on the North since it first tested an atomic device in 2006 despite the nation’s critical situation, including its worsening starvation.
“North Korea needs to know that provocations will only invite more pressure and further deepen its isolation”, he told reporters after meeting Park in Vientiane.
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An underwater test-firing of a strategic submarine ballistic missile is seen in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang April 24, 2016. The sanctions subject all cargo in and out of North Korea to inspections, ban exports of natural resources including coal and gold, tighten a weapons embargo and end relationships with outside banks. But he didn’t mention any further council action.
