UN Security Council responds to latest DPRK missile launch

The UN Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss North Korea’s claim that it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on 4 July. Experts are divided over Pyongyang’s claim that the country now has the capability to reach the United States with a nuclear device.

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, pushed for a new sanction against North Korea ‘that raises the international response in a way that is proportionate to North Korea’s escalation’. She warned the Security Council that the US was prepared to take military action against DPRK if required, saying, ‘Their actions are quickly closing off the possibility of a diplomatic solution… One of our capabilities lies with our considerable military forces. We will use them, if we must, but we prefer not to have to go in that direction.’

She pointed out that the international community could cut off the major sources of hard currency to the regime – restricting the supply of oil to its military and weapons programmes and increasing air and maritime restrictions, as well as holding senior regime officials accountable.

Haley also called upon Security Council members to implement existing UN sanctions:

‘There are countries that are allowing, even encouraging, trade with North Korea in violation of UN Security Council resolutions,’ she said. ‘Such countries would also like to continue their trade arrangements with the United States. That’s not going to happen.’

The Trump administration has expressed its frustration that China, Pyonyang’s chief trading partner, has not done more to restrain the regime. China ‘s UN ambassador Liu Jieyi, called DPRK’s missile test a ‘flagrant violation’ of UN resolutions, but called on all parties ‘to exercise restraint, avoid provocative actions and belligerent rhetoric, demonstrate the will for unconditional dialogue and work actively together to defuse the tension.’