VOA News:
The United Nations Security Council remains divided over how to respond to North Korea’s increasingly provocative missile tests, while Japan and South Korea continue to face opposition at home and abroad for pursuing more aggressive military policies.
The 15-member Security Council on Wednesday met at the request of Japan and the United States after North Korea launched two missiles earlier that day that landed in or very near Japanese-controlled waters.
Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters, “It is certainly a major, major problem for the security and safety of our region.”
Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the incursion inside Japanese waters “deeply troubling.”
“I think the Secretary-General would reiterate and renew his call to the DPRK to halt any such activities which are clearly not conducive to reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” he said
In March the United Nations imposed harsh new international sanctions on Pyongyang for conducting its fourth nuclear test and another long-range rocket launch in violation of Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from developing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons.
South Korean U.N. Ambassador Oh Joon noted North Korea has responded to the sanctions by conducting 13 rounds of ballistic missile tests this year, and firing 29 various rockets.
However Wednesday’s Security Council meeting produced no consensus for taking any further punitive measures against North Korea.
The U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, expressed confidence that the Security Council would issue a swift condemnation of North Korea.
But China’s U.N. Ambassador, Liu Jieyi, said nothing should be done to exacerbate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
