Pakistan condemns latest N Korean missile test

Advises against taking any step that undermines
prospects of regional peace and stability; US, Japan,
Beijing and S. Korea voice ‘concern’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tuesday condemned the latest missile test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and advised against taking any step that undermines the prospects of regional peace and stability”.

Reports pointed to Pyongyang’s capability to launch further long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. Voices were also raised in the United Nations, Japan, Beijing and South Korea when the DPRK state news agency KCNA broke news that a new kind of surface-to-surface medium-to-long range ballistic missile had been test-fired on Sunday. The missile was fired into the Sea of Japan.

“This is a violation of the UN Security Council Resolutions. Pakistan calls upon the DPRK to refrain from any step that undermines the prospects of regional peace and stability”, Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement.

He said Pakistan had consistently supported a nuclear weapons-free Korean Peninsula, as agreed to by all parties. “It calls upon the DPRK to refrain from actions which run counter to the objective of reaching a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the issue within the framework of the Six Party Talks”, he added.

The UN Security Council called it a grave violation of its resolutions and urged members to "redouble their efforts" to enforce sanctions on North Korea. "The members of the Security Council deplore all the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ballistic missile activities, including these launches," it said in a statement.

Japan, the US and South Korea called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Speaking to the Conference on Disarmament after the new envoy from DPRK said its weekend missile test was in self-defence, US Ambassador Robert Wood said: "All efforts to advance North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile capabilities must cease.

"If ever there were a situation that called for international collective action to ensure our mutual security, it is this," Wood said. The Pentagon said the launch was "a clear violation" of UN resolutions and that the US "reaffirmed its ironclad security commitments" to South Korea and Japan, US media reports said.

"We are capable of defending against a North Korean ballistic missile attack and will take all necessary measures to deter and defeat threats to our and our allies' territories and citizens," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters.

In a statement after the Security Council meeting, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called for action not "words" against Pyongyang. "We call on all members of the Security Council to use every available resource to make it clear to the North Korean regime - and its enablers - that these launches are unacceptable.''

The US has long blamed China for undermining sanctions against North Korea. China meanwhile “voiced opposition to North Korea's with its foreign ministry saying that it opposed such activities in violation of the resolutions.

"Under current circumstances, relevant sides should not provoke each other or take actions that would escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula," ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a regular press briefing.