SEOUL, Apr 17: South Korea has expressed support for the UN Security Council decision to tighten sanctions on North Korea for its botched rocket launch, and called for Pyongyang to refrain from further provocations.
The UN Security Council yesterday ordered tightened sanctions on the communist North over its rocket launch last week and warned of new action if the isolated state stages a nuclear test.
Seoul’s foreign ministry, in a statement released late yesterday, said it supported the move and urged the North to “stop provocations that could threaten peace and security of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia.”
“The North should clearly realise that the international community” had adopted “a resolute and unified stance on its (rocket) launch,” it said, and also called for Pyongyang to honour existing UN resolutions.
The impoverished but nuclear-armed North, led by its new young ruler Kim Jong-Un, Friday launched what it claimed was a satellite-carrying rocket to mark the centenary of the birth of its late founding president, Kim Il-Sung.
Countries including the US and the South view it as a disguised long-range ballistic missile test banned under UN resolutions.
The launch—staged amid widespread international condemnation—failed when the rocket exploded two minutes after blast-off.
The 15-member UN Security Council—including the North’s closest ally China and nuclear-armed Pakistan—“strongly condemned” the launch in a statement which highlighted “grave security concerns” in Asia.
The council ordered new “entities and items” to be added within two weeks to the sanctions committee list created after North Korea staged nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Both were staged one to three months after missile tests.
It also ordered the sanctions committee to revise the individuals and North Korean firms subject to asset freezes under the international measures.
North Korea has not issued yet an official response to the new UN actions. (AGENCIES)
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