By Canberk Yuksel
NEW YORK (AA) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned a new missile launch by North Korea, only days after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test.
“The secretary-general condemns the launch of yet another ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 15 September,” a statement by Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, calling the launch a “manifest violation” of Security Council resolutions.
“The secretary-general calls on the DPRK leadership to cease further testing, comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions, and allow space to explore the resumption of sincere dialogue on denuclearization,” the statement said, referring to the North by its official acronym.
Guterres will be discussing North Korea tensions at the annual UN General Assembly starting next week.
Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the second time in less than a month early Friday, ignoring renewed global efforts to end its nuclear threat.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from the Pyongyang area before flying a distance of around 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) over northeastern Japan and landing in the Pacific Ocean, according to local news agency Yonhap.
The projectile was assessed to be another intermediate-range ballistic missile, although it traveled 1,000 km (621 miles) further than the North’s previous test — placing U.S. forces and strategic assets in Guam well within the North’s range.
Following the “provocative” launch, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said past UN Security Council resolutions are the bare minimum response Pyongyang can expect as he called on China and Russia to take action against the North.
“China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor,” he said in a statement. “China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.”
