US calls for UN Security Council president's statement on North Korea missiles

NEW YORK - Washington has called for a United Nations Security Council presidential statement to hold North Korea accountable for its missile tests after Pyongyang’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the US mainland.

The US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Monday said it was vital that the 15-member Security Council respond with one voice, and reiterated US charges that China and Russia were “emboldening” Pyongyang by blocking council action.

“These two members’ blatant obstructionism puts the North-east Asian region, and entire world, at risk,” she told a council meeting that Washington called to discuss last Friday’s test.

“We will offer another opportunity for the council to hold the DPRK accountable for its dangerous rhetoric and its destabilising actions,” she said, referring to the North’s official name Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The United States will be proposing a presidential statement to this end.”

On Tuesday, Ms Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, said the UN Security Council (UNSC) showed “double standards” over military activities, calling them a “grave political provocation”.

“The UNSC has turned blind eyes to the very dangerous military drills of the US and South Korea and their greedy arms build-up aiming at the DPRK and taken issue with the DPRK’s exercise of its inviolable right to self-defence,” Ms Kim said, as quoted by the official KCNA news agency.

Ms Kim, a senior official of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, criticised the US envoy’s remarks and her efforts for a concerted voice through a joint statement, likening Washington to a “barking dog seized with fear”.

“The United States should be mindful that no matter how desperately it may seek to disarm the DPRK, it can never deprive the DPRK of its right to self-defence,” Ms Kim said.

“The more hellbent it gets on the anti-DPRK acts, it will face a more fatal security crisis.”

China was concerned by the “upward spiral of rising tension and intensifying confrontation” on the Korean peninsula, said its UN Ambassador Zhang Jun, but added that the council should help ease tension and not always condemn or pressure Pyongyang.

Washington should take the initiative and offer realistic proposals to respond to North Korea’s “legitimate concerns”, he said.

“All parties should remain calm, exercise restraint, act and speak with caution, and avoid any actions that may escalate tensions and lead to miscalculation,” Mr Zhang said.

Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva accused Washington of trying to force North Korea into unilateral disarmament though sanctions and force, and blamed the missile tests on military drills by the US and its allies.

After the meeting, Ms Thomas-Greenfield read a joint statement by 14 countries, including eight Security Council members, that condemned the North’s latest launch, as well as a subsequent state media report that the missile could be used for a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

North Korea has launched an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles in 2022, and Washington has been warning for months that Pyongyang could test its first nuclear device since 2017 at any time.

In November, a senior US official said Washington believes Beijing and Moscow have leverage to persuade Pyongyang not to resume nuclear testing, and US President Joe Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping last week that Beijing had an obligation to try.

On Monday, North Korea’s foreign minister accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of siding with Washington and failing to maintain impartiality and objectivity, saying it was Pyongyang’s right to develop weapons for self-defence. REUTERS