The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to discuss North Korea’s latest missile launches after Britain, Germany and France demanded the UN body for the same on Thursday, according to diplomats.
In a bid to put pressure on South Korea and the United States to stop upcoming military drills, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles early on Wednesday, the South Korean military said.
Although the UNSC has banned North Korea from ballistic missile launches resolutions, it was the second in less than a week, despite a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump last month.
Pyongyang and Washington are engaged in a long-running diplomatic process over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes that haS seen three high-profile encounters between their leaders in the space of a year.
During their meeting in the Demilitarized Zone in June, the two countries agreed to resume talks that divide the peninsula, but the working-level dialogue is yet to begin.
“We’ll be having consultations on North Korea on Thursday morning. We’re going to discuss the latest missile launches that are violations of Security Council resolutions,” a source told AFP.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, “UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believed the missile launches were just another reminder of the importance of restarting talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”.