The UN Security Council on Friday strongly condemned North Korea over its ballistic missile launches and demanded that Pyongyang refrain from further violations of UN resolutions.
Backed by China, Pyongyang’s ally, the council said in a unanimous statement that “all these launches were unacceptable” and “constituted a clear violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
The statement was adopted during a closed-door meeting called by the US after North Korea test-fired two medium-range ballistic missiles, the latest in a string of provocative acts from the reclusive regime.
Council members “strongly condemned and expressed grave concern at the ballistic missile launches” and declared that North Korea “shall refrain from further actions in violation” of UN resolutions.
Two weeks ago, the Security Council imposed its toughest sanctions to date on North Korea after Pyongyang carried out its fourth nuclear test and fired a rocket that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.
US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said the latest missile launches underscored the importance of implementing the new sanctions resolution, which targets North Korea’s mining, trade and financial sectors.
“If anybody on the council needed a reminder of why that resolution is so important … the North Korean regime just provided another one,” Power said.
The launches came a day after US President Barack Obama signed an order implementing the tough sanctions outlined in the recent UN resolution, as well as new unilateral US measures.
Japanese Ambassador to the UN Motohide Yoshikawa called the latest missile launches “very, very unfortunate” and said Pyongyang had not received “the message” from the council.
British Deputy Ambassador to the UN Peter Wilson said: “This is exactly the sort of thing that they should not be doing.”
“What we see yet again is the North Koreans defying the will of the international community and the Security Council,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the firing of the two missiles was “deeply troubling” and urged Pyongyang to halt “these inflammatory and escalatory actions,” his spokesman said.
Ban called on Pyongyang to comply with UN resolutions that bar it from developing missile technology.
During remarks at an event with North Korean women at the US mission, Power took an apparent swipe at China, saying it would be “absurd” to disassociate North Korea’s dismal rights situation from its military ambitions.
“Many of North Korea’s systematic human rights violations deliberately underwrite the government’s nuclear program, including the forced labor carried out by tens of thousands of women and children,” Power said.
China has opposed discussion in the Security Council of North Korea’s rights record, arguing that the forum for this was the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said China, Pyongyang’s main trading partner and benefactor, could “do a lot more” to get North Korea to change course.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un this week ordered multiple ballistic missile launches and a nuclear warhead test, sparking fresh concerns about the regime’s intransigence.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS