Obama said the latest round of ballistic missile launches were “provocations” that flouted global law and would only lead to further isolation.
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“Having garnered Russian Federation and China’s commitment to implement sanctions that can denuclearize North Korea, and now, backed by the U.S.’ cooperation and support, President Park is now slated to sit down with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday”.
Obama added that the US had not closed off the possibility for dialogue with North Korea, if it were to change course. Those sanctions reflected growing anger at Pyongyang’s nuclear test in January and a subsequent rocket launch.
In March, the U.N. Security Council imposed the toughest sanctions in decades on North Korea after it began a round of nuclear and ballistic missile tests.
South Korea in July announced the deployment of the advanced anti-missile system in the southern part of the country.
Warning of the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, France’s U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters that “weakness is not an option” and urged “quick and firm” council action.
After his meeting with Park, Obama said if North Korea committed to denuclearization then the “opportunities for us to dialogue with them are there”.
North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast Monday, a launch that was widely viewed as a show of force timed to get the attention of world leaders visiting the region for a series of summits.
With each test, she said, the North demonstrates further advancement of its ballistic missile program whose aim according to the country’s leader Kim Jong Un is “to arm the systems with nuclear weapons”.
Obama called the latest missile launches “provocations”.
Asked whether China agreed more significant measures needed to be taken, permanent United Kingdom representative to the U.N., Matthew Rycroft, said: “We’re talking to all of our council colleagues”.
“So we are going to work diligently together with the most recent United Nations sanctions that are already placing North Korea under the most intense sanctions regime ever”, Obama said.
What action the council takes remains to be seen and a lot depends on China, the North’s neighbor and only major ally, though ties have frayed over the nuclear and missile tests and what many outsiders see as other provocations in recent years.
The council said it would “continue to closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures” if merited and called on all sides to work to reduce tensions.
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“There were very strong and numerous voices in the room for doing more”, she said. “So without getting ahead of the council we were also interested in increasing the consequences after this pattern of using these launches to advance the capabilities of the program”.
