The Guardian:
The UN security council has strongly condemned North Korea’s latest missile test and threatened to impose new sanctions against Pyongyang for its “highly destabilizing behavior”.
In a unanimous statement, the council demanded that North Korea “conduct no further nuclear tests”, saying Pyongyang’s “illegal missile activities” were “greatly increasing tension in the region and beyond”.
The council threatened to “take further significant measures including sanctions” to address the crisis of North Korea’s missile launches.
While previous statements have warned of further measures, the agreed text made specific mention of sanctions, signaling a tougher stance from the council.
“If we have to start looking at sanctions or other actions, we will,” the US ambassador, Nikki Haley, told reporters.
The US-drafted statement was agreed upon after Russia insisted that language stressing the need to achieve a peaceful solution “through dialogue” was included in the final text.
Moscow had blocked an earlier version of the statement – which comes after North Korea carried out a failed test on Sunday – even though China, Pyongyang’s ally, had expressed its support for it.
However, the Russian charge d’affaires, Petr Iliichev, denied blocking the statement, saying the US had broken off talks on a consensus position in an “abrupt manner”.
Council statements are adopted by consensus among all 15 members…
