Global Security Newswire

North Korea yesterday drew fire again from the U.N. Security Council for conducting another round of missile launches, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, July 6).

The North is believed Saturday to have launched seven Scud and Rodong ballistic missiles, two days after firing four short-range weapons.

The Security Council "condemned and expressed grave concern" over the latest launches during a session yesterday, said Ugandan Ambassador to the United Nations Ruhakana Rugunda, who leads the body this month. He said Pyongyang's actions "constitute a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions as well as a threat to regional and international security."

The 15-member council recently slapped Pyongyang with an expanded set of sanctions designed to hamper its nuclear and missile programs. It reminded the North's reclusive government that it "must comply fully with its obligations and relevant resolutions" that prohibit the regime from conducting ballistic missile launches.

At the same time, the body discouraged member nations from provoking Pyongyang's nuclear-armed regime by responding too strongly to its provocations, urging "all parties to refrain from any action that would aggravate the security situation in the region" and join in the pursuit of "a peaceful, diplomatic, and political solution" to the nuclear standoff.

Rugunda said the council would "continue to closely monitor the situation and act as appropriate in accordance to the U.N. Charter" (Gerard Aziakou, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, July 6).

Meanwhile, South Korea today said the United States would consider plans to expand Seoul's ballistic missile capability so it could strike targets across the North, the Associated Press reported.

The South is bound by a 2001 agreement banning production of any ballistic missiles with a range exceeding 186 miles. However, the United States last week suggested it would be open to rolling back that proscription in light of the heightened threat from North Korea, said an unnamed official in South Korea's Defense Ministry.

U.S. military spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said Maj. Gen. Frank Panter indicated that the United States was open to discussing the mater.

South Korean missile constraints date back to 1979 and were established in hopes of preventing an arms race in the region. The 2001 agreement allows for the unrestricted development of slower, more easily intercepted cruise missiles carrying payloads weighing less than 1,100 pounds; South Korea is currently working on a model with a 930-mile range.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo in April suggested that the government "review" the ban after the North conducted what has widely been seen as a test of its long-range missile capability (Hyung-Jin Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, July 7).