The United States, Britain and France pushed the United Nations Security Council on Friday to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its fifth and biggest nuclear test as the 15-member council condemned the move by Pyongyang.
North Korea conducted the nuclear test on Friday and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.
The Chinese government did not address further sanctions, but also condemned the test.
Beijing has said Washington’s decision to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Power has rejected suggestions that the decision to deploy the anti-missile defence system in South Korea had provoked Pyongyang.
North Korea has been under UN sanction since 2006. In March, the Security Council tightened sanctions to further isolate the impoverished country after its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February.
The Security Council condemned Friday’s test, calling it “a clear violation and in flagrant disregard” of previous resolutions and of the Nonproliferation regime.
In the unanimously adopted March resolution, the council expressed “its determination to take further significant measures in the event of a further DPRK (North Korea) nuclear test or launch.”
The 15-member council said it will begin to work immediately on appropriate measures, without adding details.
Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters:
Pyongyang has also carried out a string of ballistic missile tests this year in defiance of UN sanctions, which have all been condemned by the Security Council.
British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said there were a series of steps the Security Council could take to respond to Friday’s nuclear test and that Britain would like to see a combination of those steps imposed.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned North Korea’s nuclear test as a “brazen breach” of UN Security Council resolutions.
(Published in an arrangement with Reuters.)
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