A U.S.-led call for the U.N. Security Council to take action over North Korea's recent spate of missile launches, which included an ICBM test over the weekend, was impeded by Russia and China.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield delivered a joint statement at an emergency Security Council briefing on Monday, calling for U.N. member states to condemn North Korea's "irresponsible behavior" and to fully implement existing sanctions over the secretive regime's illicit weapons program.
"It is time the Security Council spoke again with one voice against the DPRK's declared efforts to develop an unlawful nuclear arsenal that would pose a grave danger to the world," the statement said. "Council silence has not led to restraint in Pyongyang. In fact, it has emboldened the DPRK authorities."
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
North Korea fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile on Saturday, in what Greenfield-Thomas said was the country's ninth ICBM test since the beginning of last year. Japanese officials said the missile landed in the waters of its exclusive economic zone and had the capacity to reach the entire United States.
The joint statement was signed by Albania, Britain, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
