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North Korea
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US fails to get China to back UN text against North Korea missile ‘violations’

  • Pyongyang’s weekend satellite launch is thought to be a thinly veiled ballistic weapon test right before South Korea’s presidential election
  • This marks the 17th time China has opposed the adoption of a US- and European-proposed text against North Korea since 2017

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A news report on North Korea’s launch of a suspected ballistic missile is aired on a television at Seoul Station in South Korea in February. Photo: EPA-EFE/Yonhap
Agence France-Presse
The US and European allies on the United Nations Security Council failed Monday to convince China and Russia to back a text noting North Korea’s “violations” of resolutions on missile technology.
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North Korean state media said Pyongyang carried out a test Saturday for what it said was a reconnaissance satellite, but which analysts said was a thinly veiled ballistic missile launch, just days before a presidential election in South Korea.

“We would love to have China and Russia join us in this room” to adopt the text, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Agence France-Presse after a closed-door Security Council meeting.

Backed by 10 other ambassadors – including from countries not on the Security Council, such as Australia and Japan – Thomas-Greenfield read out a text affirming that the group is “united today in condemning the DPRK’s March 5 (local time) launch of a ballistic missile”, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“Like the 10 other ballistic missile launches since the beginning of the year, this act by the DPRK violated multiple Security Council resolutions,” she said. “While the DPRK escalates its destabilising actions, the Security Council continues to remain silent.

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“Each ballistic missile launch that results in inaction by the Council erodes the credibility of the UN Security Council itself,” Thomas-Greenfield added, without mentioning China or Russia.

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