G7 seeks significant UN response to North Korea’s missile launch

Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialized nations have called on the United Nations Security Council to take “significant measures” in response to the latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch by North Korea.

“(North Korea’s) actions demand a united and robust response by the international community,” the ministers of the United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Britain, France and Italy said.

Pyongyang tested a ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland on Friday shortly after warning of “fiercer military responses” to Washington beefing up its security presence in the region.

Also Read: North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles 

The G7 statement said Friday’s test was a “reckless act” and “another blatant violation” of U.N. resolutions.

 “The unprecedented series of unlawful ballistic missile launches conducted by (North Korea) in 2022 … pose a serious threat to regional and international peace and security,” the G7 statement said, adding that the country “cannot and will never have the status of a nuclear-weapon state”.

North Korea’s foreign minister has accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of siding with the United States and failing to maintain impartiality and objectivity.

“Recently I have often taken the UN secretary-general for a member of the U.S. White House or its State Department,” Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said in a statement carried by state media defending the nuclear-armed North’s right to develop weapons for self-defense.

Zainab Sa’id