A North Korean diplomat has said that the isolated dictatorship will take "strong steps" if the UN security council votes to take action after the country's rocket launch on Sunday. He said that if the 15-nation body took "any kind of steps whatever, we'll consider this is (an) encroachment on our sovereignty and the next option will be ours...Necessary and strong steps will follow that."
US, Japanese and South Korean governments, along with others, condemned North Korea's launch of a missile last weekend, claiming that the firing of such missiles was prohibited by a UN Security Council Resolution. The resolution was created in 2006 in response to North Korea's nuclear test. In a rare appearance, Deputy Ambassador Pak Tok Hun, told reporters "It's not fair. It's not fair.While they themselves launch more than a hundred times the satellites ... we are not allowed to do that. That is not democratic."
The Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss a response to the launch, however, no action could be agreed on other than to return to the issue at a later date. Russia and China, with three other council members, opposed the US and Japanese resolution which would have punished North Korea. A second meeting on Monday of the five permanent members of the Security Council; the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, as well as Japan was held to discuss a compromise. However, this meeting with also unsuccessful with the Western powers unable to convince Russia and China that strong condemnation was required.
No comments:
Post a Comment