UN Security Council slams Pyongyang's launches of ballistic missiles

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council on Monday "strongly condemned" the most recent ballistic missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), saying that "these launches are in grave violation of the DPRK international obligations under UN SC resolutions."

The 15-nation UN body was "unanimous" in condemning the DPRK ballistic missile launches on Feb 11, 2017 and Oct 19, 2016 while the council met behind closed doors here on Monday afternoon, Boloymyr Yelchenko, the Ukrainian permanent representative to the United Nations, who holds the rotating council presidency for February.

The closed council meeting, which kicked off shortly after 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) on Monday and lasted about 50 minutes, took place at the request of the United States, Japan and South Korea.

"The members of the Security Council deplore all the DPRK ballistic missile activities, including these launches, noting that such activities contribute to the DPRK's development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and increase tension," the council president said while reading a press statement from the most powerful UN body.

"The members of the Security Council further regretted that the DPRK is diverting resources to the pursuit of ballistic missiles while DPRK citizens have great unmet needs," the statement said.

"The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea conducted these ballistic missiles launches after the April 15, April 23, April 27, April 28, May 31, June 21, July 9, July 18, Aug 2, Aug 23, Sept 5, and Oct 14 launches, as well as the nuclear test of Sept 9, in flagrant disregard of the repeated statements of the Security Council," the statement said.