G-7 powers condemn failed North Korean satellite launch
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A news report on North Korea firing a space rocket shown on a screen at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on Aug 24, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Brussels – Foreign ministers from the G-7 group of rich democracies condemned North Korea’s failed bid to launch a spy satellite
In a joint statement, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and European Union said North Korea’s move “poses a grave threat to regional and international peace and stability”.
North Korea’s second bid to put a sky satellite in orbit failed on Thursday, three months after a first crashed into the ocean.
The nuclear-armed authoritarian state said afterwards that it would attempt another launch in October.
The satellite was to have been carried to orbit in a staged rocket that uses the same technology as ballistic missiles – which Pyongyang is forbidden from developing under UN resolutions.
“Despite the repeated calls from the international community, North Korea continues to intensify its escalatory actions through a record number of ballistic missile launches,” the ministers said.
This, they alleged, proves North Korea’s “determination to advance and diversify its unlawful nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities”.
“North Korea’s reckless action must be met with a swift, united and robust international response, particularly by the United Nations Security Council,” they said.
Three Group of Seven members – Britain, France and the United States – are permanent members of the UN Security Council, but two others, China and Russia, have been more sympathetic to North Korea.
“We deplore North Korea’s choice to divert its limited resources to fund its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes,” the ministers said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later issued a statement through his spokesman saying that he “strongly condemns the attempted launch of yet another military satellite”.
“Any launch by the DPRK using ballistic missile technology is contrary to the relevant Security Council resolutions,” spokesman Florencia Soto Nino said, using the initials for North Korea’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“The Secretary-General reiterates his call on the DPRK to cease such acts and to swiftly resume dialogue without preconditions to achieve the goal of sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” she added. AFP
