UN chief condemns North Korean missile launch
Guterres voiced his condemnation after a flurry of North Korean missile launches in January.
“The Secretary General condemns the launch of a ballistic missile of possible intermediate-range by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 30 January,” Guterres’ deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The spokesperson said the launch broke Pyongyang’s announced moratorium on tests such as these in 2018 and was “a clear violation of Security Council resolutions.”
“It is of great concern that the DPRK has again disregarded any consideration for international flight or maritime safety,” the spokesperson said, urging North Korea to refrain from “any further counterproductive actions” and calling on all parties to resume dialogue.
North Korea began the year by conducting several missile tests last month, rattling Seoul and drawing anger from Washington. On Monday, Pyongyang’s state-run media confirmed the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile into the Sea of Japan, the country’s most powerful missile test in over four years.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the recent tests during a conversation with his Japanese counterpart, Hayashi Yoshimasa on Tuesday, according to Blinken’s spokesperson, Ned Price.
The talks around North Korea effectively stalled after the 2019 no-deal summit between then-US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam. Pyongyang has since said that it is no longer bound by the self-imposed moratorium on missile tests.
