The 15-member Security Council failed on Friday to agree on a joint statement condemning North Korea’s recent ballistic missile barrage. Instead, some countries – including France, the UK and the US – have separately condemned Pyongyang’s continued missile tests. North Korea carried out a record number of missile launches this week, including an apparent intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), bringing the total number of missiles launched to more than 60 so far this year. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council have condemned North Korea’s escalating ballistic missile launches since the start of the year, but that Pyongyang is protected by two countries – China and Russia – although he did not name. them immediately. Both countries had “bent over backwards” to justify repeated violations of UN sanctions by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the US ambassador said, using North Korea’s official name. “And, in turn, they have enabled the PRC and made a mockery of this council,” he added. But China, North Korea’s closest ally, and Russia, whose relations with the West have been severely strained by its invasion of Ukraine, told the UN meeting that the US was to blame for the ongoing tension with North Korea. Two members of the UN Security Council have bent over backwards to justify North Korea’s illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs. And, in turn, they allowed North Korea. This cannot stand. The risks to the region and the world are simply too great. pic.twitter.com/1UEFWixB0b — Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) November 4, 2022 China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun countered that North Korea’s missile launches were directly linked to the resumption of large-scale US-South Korean military exercises after a five-year hiatus, including air force exercises involving hundreds of warplanes from the two countries . The Chinese ambassador also pointed to the Defense Department’s recently released 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, which he said envisaged the use of nuclear weapons by North Korea and that the collapse of the Pyongyang regime is one of the main US goals. Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN Anna Evstigneeva blamed the significantly worsening situation on the Korean peninsula “on Washington’s desire to force Pyongyang to disarm unilaterally using sanctions and applying pressure and force.” He called the US-South Korean military air drills, which began on October 31, unprecedented in size with about 240 military aircraft and claimed it was “essentially a rehearsal for conducting massive raids on DPRK soil.” In June, Evstigneeva called for the lifting of sanctions on North Korea, saying the country needed more humanitarian aid and less pressure from the West. North Korea has defended its weapons program and ballistic missile launch as a legitimate means of defense against what it sees as a decades-old threat from the US and its ally South Korea. The US ambassador responded to the Chinese and Russian envoys by saying, “This is nothing more than a redaction of DPRK propaganda.” He added that the US and South Korean military exercises “are not a threat to anyone, let alone the DPRK.” “In contrast, just last month, the DPRK said its recent launches were a simulation of the tactical use of nuclear weapons on the battlefield to ‘hit and eliminate’ potential US and ROK targets,” he said. France’s UN ambassador, Nicolas de Riviere, called at the meeting on Friday for continued pressure on signs that North Korea is preparing for its seventh ever nuclear bomb test. “The current escalation is unprecedented and these new challenges are unacceptable,” he said. The UN Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006 and has tightened them over the years, seeking to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and cut off funding. But in May, China and Russia blocked a resolution that would have strengthened sanctions over the missile launches, in the first major rift in the Council over sanctions against North Korea. UN Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari has warned that UN Security Council unity on North Korea is essential if progress is to be made. “The unity of the Security Council on this issue is necessary to defuse tensions, overcome the diplomatic deadlock and the negative cycle of action-reaction,” Khiari said. Al Jazeera Diplomatic Correspondent James Bays, writing from New York, said the UN Security Council is clearly not united in its approach to North Korea. “Certainly many members would like to reach a joint statement, a strong statement condemning North Korea. But it seems that such a statement cannot be negotiated because China and Russia are against such a statement,” he said.
