UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launches, calling them “unacceptable,” a clear violation of U.N. resolutions banning such tests, and a threat to regional and international security.
A statement from the U.N.’s most powerful body after an urgent meeting called by the United States reiterated the council’s demand that North Korea comply with Security Council resolutions which prohibit all ballistic missile activity.
The council met hours after the North fired a medium-range missile from a site north of Pyongyang that flew about 500 miles before crashing into the sea off the country’s east coast. The resolution also condemned the North’s firing of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on March 10, in response to new sanctions from South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has intensified the North’s nuclear activities in defiance of U.N. sanctions since the beginning of the year — detonating its fourth nuclear test in January which it called an “H-bomb of justice,” launching a long-range rocket in February and following up this month with ballistic missile launches.
Friday’s launch follows Kim’s recent order for tests of a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying atomic warheads. And it comes during the annual South Korean-U.S. military drills, which the North views as a rehearsal for an invasion and has condemned.
