Debate over how to deal with the launch of a North Korean ballistic missile over Japanese territory on Wednesday split an already deeply divided UN Security Council, with Russia and China insisting US-led military drills in the region had provoked North Korea into action .
Wednesday’s meeting ended with no agreement on next steps, despite warnings from the US and its allies that the council’s failure to reach a consensus on North Korea’s record number of missile launches this year emboldens North Korea and undermines the authority of the United Nations’ most powerful Body.
“This advice should be aware that it is being tested and its credibility is at stake. This council should act and take measures that restore its credibility,” said Hiroshi Minami, Japan’s deputy representative to the United Nations and one of those who unsuccessfully urged the council to its previous unified stance on North Korea’s launches.
North Korea’s missile flight on Tuesday was its longest-range weapons test ever, a nuclear-capable ballistic missile that flew over Japan and had enough power to reach the US Pacific region of Guam and beyond. It forced the Japanese government to issue evacuation warnings and halt trains.
The United Nations said North Korea’s unprecedented number of ballistic missile launches this year, now more than 40, comes as North Korea also moves toward a seventh nuclear test. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles at its eastern waters just 22 minutes apart early Thursday, officials said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to develop a full-fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening the US mainland and territory of US allies, with a view to wringing concessions from those countries, some experts say.
Tuesday’s launch was the first Kim has aimed at Japan since 2017. It came days after a US-led military exercise in the Sea of Japan with allies Japan and South Korea. The exercise involved a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Deputy UN representative to Russia Anna Evstigneeva insisted to Security Council members that it was the “irresponsibility” of this US-led exercise, along with growing US alliances with partners in the Asia-Pacific region, that prompted North Korea’s action.
China’s deputy UN representative, Geng Shuang, presented the matter as a confrontation between the US and North Korea and urged a more conciliatory approach by Washington.
Wednesday’s session ended with only a vague call for more discussion of the matter. It served as the latest example of growing polarization between Russia and China and the other permanent members of the Security Council, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
The division, brought to the fore by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s military assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and the US response thereto, and other issues, has paralyzed the Security Council on many key actions. That’s because all five permanent members have the power to veto Council actions.
The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test blast in 2006 and has tightened them over the years to curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and cut funding.
In May, however, China and Russia blocked a Security Council resolution that would have tightened sanctions over the missile launches, sparking the Council’s first serious row over sanctions against North Korea.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told Security Council members on Wednesday that “two permanent members of the Security Council activated Kim Jong Un.”
Missile launches earlier this year were clearly launched without concurrent US military exercises or other clear triggers, Thomas-Greenfield said, calling North Korea’s a “self-initiated escalation.”
“We will not tolerate any country blaming our defenses… as somehow inherently causing these threats,” she said. She added, “The United States will not stand by while the DPRK directly threatens the US or its allies.”