“We are going to work together to make sure we’re closing loopholes and make them even more effective”, Obama told reporters on Tuesday after meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Laos at a summit of the the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
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It said they had been fired over the Sea of Japan (East Sea) without warning, taking place as world leaders met at the G20 summit in China.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un called on his military to continue building up Pyongyang’s nuclear force after issuing orders for the latest test-firing of ballistic missiles, the North’s state media said on Tuesday.
In June, after a string of failures, North Korea sent an intermediate Musudan missile more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) high in a test launch that outside analysts said showed progress in efforts to acquire the ability to strike US forces in the region. Malaysia has condemned the firing of ballistic missiles by North Korea on Monday, and urged the country to “desist from conducting further launches”.
Tuesday’s statement marked the council’s second response to North Korean missile launches in two weeks, and it was unanimously agreed upon in the three hours after the Security Council held urgent consultations. Experts say they they were Scud-ER missiles, which have a range of about that distance.
South Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador Hahn Choong Hee said the global community should be united in sending a “clear and unequivocal message to North Korea that if they continue to provoke and violate their worldwide commitments and sanctions, they will face much stronger and insurmountable and significant counter-measures from the worldwide community”.
The missile launches came less than two weeks after Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coastal town of Sinpo, where a submarine base is known to be located, on August 24.
“The members of the Security Council deplore all the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s ballistic missile activities, including these launches”, said New Zealand’s Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, who is president of the council this month.
The North Korea issue was also discussed during Park’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday.
Obama believes the USA and Korea have to be vigilant in sanctions enforcement, aides said.
Obama said after the meeting in Vientiane that North Korea needed to know that “provocations will only invite more pressure and further deepen its isolation”.
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Park described the relationship between her country and the U.S. as “rock solid”. It has conducted a series of missile tests this year, including a submarine-launched missile.
