A statement approved by all 15 members of the security council called North Korea’s actions a “grave violation” and a “flagrant violation” of security council resolutions calling on North Korea to halt their intercontinental ballistic missile system.
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They 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.
Those sanctions reflected growing anger at Pyongyang’snuclear test in January and a subsequent rocket launch.
It said the activities have further raised the anger of North Korean soldiers at a time when the Korean Peninsula has reached the “brink of war” due to the start of annual joint military drills between the US and South Korea on Monday last week that Pyongyang says are an invasion rehearsal.
The North Korean missile launched Wednesday flew about 500 kilometers toward Japan, a distance markedly further than similar launches in the past. The other tests took place on August 2, with a projectile falling inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone for the first time, as well as July 9 and 18.
The council’s agreement on Friday’s statement, just twodays after the latest North Korean test, reflects growinganger and concern at the North’s continuing defiance of thecouncil, including by China.
An official statement by the North’s Korean People’s Army accuses US and South Korean troops of initiating “deliberate provocations” by targeting North Korean posts with the lights.
The council met behind closed doors on Wednesday after North Korea launched a missile from a submarine towards Japan, the latest provocation from Pyongyang.
“As we’ve said, North Korea continuously threatens provocations through official media, and unofficially there have been signs of threats, and the warning is a follow-up step to that”, Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said at a news briefing.
A proven SLBM system would take North Korea’s nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a “second-strike” capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.
North Korean strategists believe that developing nuclear weapons and a reliable arsenal of long-range missiles is necessary and, in the end, a more cost-effective means of keeping Washington at bay and the ruling regime secure than maintaining a large conventional army.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday described the latest SLBM test as the “greatest success” and said it put the U.S. mainland and the Pacific within striking range.
