The parliamentary resolution also urged Japan’s government to separately impose its own sanctions against North Korea to address issues including the North’s nuclear and missile programs and the abductions of Japanese citizens by the North decades ago.
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Pyongyang carried out both acts in defiance of global sanctions.
During the calls Monday night, the leaders underscored the importance of a “strong and united worldwide response to North Korea’s provocations, including through a robust UN Security Council resolution”. In line with this commitment and the gravity of this most recent violation, the members of the Security Council will adopt expeditiously a new Security Council resolution with such measures in response to these risky and serious violations.
Sanctions already in place against Pyongyang ban it from working with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, blacklist certain figures and organizations and prohibit the import of luxury goods.
The US is considering deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) in South Korea in an effort to shield itself and its allies from future North Korea military aggression.
Still, the legislation would elevate the stakes, as the US and China, which fought on oppose sides in the 1950-53 Korean War, grapple with a North Korea which appears impervious to diplomatic pressure and intent on building a bigger nuclear arsenal. “As to whether or not it achieved North Korea’s goals, you can ask the North Koreans, but there’s nothing about this test that surprises us, and so in that sense, again, it’s consistent with what we’ve seen previously from the North Koreans”, he said.
“South Korea is a treaty ally of the United States and we take those obligations quite seriously”, he said.
Such incidents are not uncommon, CNN’s Paula Hancocks reports.
Following the meeting, Hugo Swire said North Korea’s actions “continue to present a threat to regional and global security”.
The rocket was launched from a facility in north-western North Korea, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported, citing the South Korean military.
The 3-stage rocket was confirmed to have put an object into orbit but it has not yet been verified whether the alleged satellite is functioning, he told journalists, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“If I were North Korea, I would probably have done the same thing to avoid South Korea pulling it out of the sea to study it and show it off”, said David Wright, co-director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
A South Korean lawmaker said intelligence suggested the launch had likely been timed to coincide to maximize worldwide media impact.
The flight path was similar to the 2012 launch vehicle, whose first-stage debris was recovered by South Korea off its western coast.
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Park received a phone call from the US president at about 11:20 a.m. local time, making an in-depth discussions about the DPRK’s nuclear test and ballistic missile launch, Park’s office said.
