“The Security Council must remain unequivocal and united in the condemnation of these tests and we must take action to enforce the words we put on paper, to enforce our resolutions”, USA ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said after a Security Council meeting.
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Not only are world leaders in Hangzhou, China, for a G20 summit.
President Park Geun-hye and her US counterpart Barack Obama speak during a press conference after their summit in the Laotian capital of Vietiane on September 6, 2016. Despite the heavy sanctions, North Korea says the programs are justified because of the threat posed by the US and South Korea.
“We are going to work diligently together with the most recent United Nations sanctions”, Obama told reporters after meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Taking into consideration the importance of China’s role in effective implementation of the sanctions and the resolution process of the North Korean nuclear issue, Obama said “our two countries have agreed to continue to communicate with China through various channels”.
South Korea in July announced the deployment of the advanced anti-missile system in the southern part of the country.
North Korea rejects the ban as infringing its sovereign right to pursue a space program and self defense. The new launches are sure to increase South Korean resolve in building the defense system.
Japanese officials condemned the launch and noted the North’s steady progress.
The submarine-based ballistic missile launch last month prompted even sharper expressions of concern. “North Korea chose to launch the missile at this time in an attempt to interfere in the discussions about North Korea at the G20 summit”, Zheng Jiyong, director of the Center for Korean Studies at the Shanghai-based Fudan University, told the Global Times. “Those threats are coming closer each moment”.
In a joint press conference after the summit, Park once again explained and defended her decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in her country.
The North does not yet have a functioning long-range missile capable of reaching the continental United States, regional security analysts say.
“With each test, each violation of UN Security Council resolutions – and there have been 22 of them so far this year – the DPRK demonstrates further advancement of its ballistic program”, USA envoy Samantha Power said.
“The Security Council must remain unequivocal and united in its condemnation of these tests”.
In August, Pyongyang confirmed what nuclear experts had speculated for months – that it had resumed production of plutonium at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. That means “North Korea’s submarines would not have to travel very far out to sea to attack the THAAD system from behind”.
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It called on North Korea to “refrain from further actions, including nuclear tests, in violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions and comply fully with its obligations under these resolutions”.
