A senior US official called the launches “reckless” and a threat to civil aviation and local maritime commerce, and a USA statement strongly condemned the launches, which came as China, North Korea’s only global ally, hosted the G20 summit.
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The launches came as world leaders gathered in neighboring China for the G20 summit, sparking condemnation from Japan and the United States, which blasted them as “reckless”. Both leaders suggested they would continue to push China, North Korea’s only ally in the region, to use its influence to intervene.
The launches “are a grave security provocation and can never be permitted”, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters in Tokyo.
The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launches and threatened “further significant measures” if the country refuses to stop its nuclear and missile tests.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said North Korea’s actions showed its “blatant disregard” for its worldwide obligations and “its willingness to provoke and to threaten the global community”.
The Security Council, meanwhile, scheduled a closed emergency meeting on the latest launches for this morning.
The Rodong is a scaled-up Scud variant with a maximum range of around 1,300 kilometers, bringing most of Japan within range. Obama said they were “provocative”.
Power noted that North Korea has conducted 22 launches so far this year that have demonstrated advancement of its ballistic missile program.
Earlier, France called the tests “extremely concerning” and “a clear and unacceptable new violation of the Security Council resolutions”. President Barack Obama was to head to Laos on Monday evening.
During their summit meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos on Tuesday, President Park Geun-hye and her USA counterpart Barack Obama reaffirmed that the two allies would mobilize all possible means to counter Pyongyang’s continued provocations. North Korea in the meantime, appears to be making its own attempt at diplomacy. China has urged South Korea and the U.S.to scrap the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, saying it is merely meant to spy on the China.
It was the eighth such statement responding to North Korean launches since February this year, and the wording was virtually identical to the previous three, issued on August 26, Jun. 23 and Jun. 1. Submarine-based missiles are harder to detect before launch than land-based ones like Rodongs.
United Nations resolutions bar North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, but Pyongyang has carried out several launches following its fourth nuclear test in January.
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The UN Security Council condemned North Korea’s launching of three intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Monday in a joint statement on Tuesday, warning it plans to take “further significant measures” against the Pyongyang regime.
