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UN Security Council condemns recent North Korea launch
Edith M. Lederer - Associated Press
Issue date: 4/14/09 Section: News
UNITED NATIONS - A week after North Korea's rocket launch, the U.N. Security Council on Monday condemned the action, demanded an end to missile tests and said it will expand sanctions against the reclusive communist nation.
The council's statement, agreed on by all 15 members and read at a formal meeting of the United Nations' most powerful body, said the launch violated a council resolution adopted after the North conducted a nuclear test explosion in 2006 that banned any missile tests by the country.
The statement was a weaker response than a U.N. resolution, which was sought by Japan and the United States but was opposed by China and Russia. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice insisted the statement is legally binding, just like a resolution, but other diplomats and officials disagreed.
North Korea warned earlier that any move to censure it at the U.N. could prompt its withdrawal from negotiations on dismantling the communist regime's nuclear weapons program.
The North's talks with the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia are currently stalled.
In the statement, the Security Council expresses support for those talks and "calls for their early resumption." It also expresses the council's desire "for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the situation" and for efforts to achieve "the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the council's statement because it "sends a unified message of the international community on the recent launch," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
She said Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, hopes the council's "response will pave the way for renewed efforts towards the peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues in the region, including the early resumption of the six-party talks and the inter-Korean dialogue."
North Korea carried out the rocket launch in face of intense international pressure, saying it put a satellite in orbit as allowed under a U.N. space treaty.
The council's statement, agreed on by all 15 members and read at a formal meeting of the United Nations' most powerful body, said the launch violated a council resolution adopted after the North conducted a nuclear test explosion in 2006 that banned any missile tests by the country.
The statement was a weaker response than a U.N. resolution, which was sought by Japan and the United States but was opposed by China and Russia. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice insisted the statement is legally binding, just like a resolution, but other diplomats and officials disagreed.
North Korea warned earlier that any move to censure it at the U.N. could prompt its withdrawal from negotiations on dismantling the communist regime's nuclear weapons program.
The North's talks with the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia are currently stalled.
In the statement, the Security Council expresses support for those talks and "calls for their early resumption." It also expresses the council's desire "for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the situation" and for efforts to achieve "the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the council's statement because it "sends a unified message of the international community on the recent launch," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
She said Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, hopes the council's "response will pave the way for renewed efforts towards the peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues in the region, including the early resumption of the six-party talks and the inter-Korean dialogue."
North Korea carried out the rocket launch in face of intense international pressure, saying it put a satellite in orbit as allowed under a U.N. space treaty.
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