UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN Security Council denounced North Korea’s latest missile test Tuesday, unanimously demanding that Pyongyang halt the program after a rocket was fired over Japan into the Pacific.
Following the emergency closed-door session called by the United States and Japan, Tokyo’s envoy at the UN suggested that a new sanctions declaration could be issued.
“Next step starting now. We can’t predict the outcome but I certainly hope it would be a strong resolution following this statement,” Koro Bessho said.
The 15-member body maintained its unity after Kim Jong-Un’s latest provocation, with China and Russia agreeing to sign up to a statement condemning his isolated regime’s action.
But the US-drafted statement, while noting that the test contravened several previous Security Council resolutions, will not immediately lead to new or tightened measures against Pyongyang.
Still, diplomatic sources told AFP that the speed with which the members had reacted underlined their determination to remain united.
“The Security Council stresses that these DPRK actions are not just a threat to the region, but to all UN member states,” said the statement, issued after closed-door talks at UN headquarters.
“The Security Council expresses its grave concern that the DPRK is, by conducting such a launch over Japan as well as its recent actions and public statements, deliberately undermining regional peace and stability.”
The Council demanded that North Korea — already the target of seven rounds of UN sanctions that have done little to quell Kim’s nuclear missile ambitions — obey all existing resolutions.
This would mean the North “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, and immediately cease all related activities.”
Pyongyang must not “conduct any further nuclear tests or any further provocation; and abandon any other existing weapons of mass destruction in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”
Finally, the body “welcomes efforts by Council members, as well as other states, to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue.”
UN Council unanimously condemns North Korea missile test
UN Council unanimously condemns North Korea missile test
Gordon Brown ‘regrets’ Iraq War support, new biography says
- Former UK PM claims he was ‘misled’ over evidence of WMDs
- Robin Cook, the foreign secretary who resigned in protest over calls for war, had a ‘clearer view’
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown regrets his failure to oppose Tony Blair’s push for war with Iraq, a new biography has said.
Brown told the author of “Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” James Macintyre, that Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary who opposed the war, had a “clearer view” than the rest of the government at the time.
Cook quit the Cabinet in 2003 after protesting against the war, claiming that the push to topple Saddam Hussein was based on faulty information over a claimed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
That information served as the fundamental basis for the US-led war but was later discredited following the invasion of Iraq.
Brown, chancellor at the time, publicly supported Blair’s push for war, but now says he was “misled.”
If Brown had joined Cook’s protest at the time, the campaign to avoid British involvement in the war may have succeeded, political observers have since said.
The former prime minister said: “Robin had been in front of us and Robin had a clearer view. He felt very strongly there were no weapons.
“And I did not have that evidence … I was being told that there were these weapons. But I was misled like everybody else.
“And I did ask lots of questions … and I didn’t get the correct answers,” he added.
“Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” will be published by Bloomsbury next month.
