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UN Security Council to convene Monday on North Korea missile launch

North Korea claims ICBM test of ‘world's most powerful weapon’; Seoul warns Pyongyang may gain Russian missile tech for Ukraine aid

UN Security Council to convene Monday on North Korea missile launch

A Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM] is launched at Pyongyang international airport, in Pyongyang, North Korea, in February 2023.

Photo: Reuters

The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet on Monday, two diplomats said, over North Korea's test on Thursday of what Pyongyang said was an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The United States, France, Japan, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia and Britain requested the meeting, the diplomats said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned North Korea's long-range ballistic missile, which is a "clear violation" of UN Security Council resolutions, a UN spokesperson said.

"The Secretary-General remains concerned about the situation on the Korean Peninsula," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. "Diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

North Korea has been under UN Security Council sanctions since 2006 and the measures have been steadily strengthened over the years with the aim of halting Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

US, Japan and South Korea strongly condemn launch

The United States, Japan and South Korea issued a joint statement on Thursday strongly condemning North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea said it tested an ICBM earlier on Thursday, upgrading what it called the "world's most powerful strategic weapon", as Seoul warned Pyongyang could get missile technology from Russia for helping with the war in Ukraine.

The US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a call with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea in which the condemned the launch and called it a "flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions."

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