G-7 seeks significant U.N. measures over DPRK

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The U.N. headquarters in New York

BERLIN (Jiji Press) — Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies called on the U.N. Security Council on Sunday to take “further significant measures” in response to North Korea’s launch Friday of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss a response to the ICBM launch.

North Korea’s actions “demand a united and robust response by the international community, including the need for further significant measures to be taken by the U.N. Security Council,” the G-7 foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

“We call on all states to fully and effectively implement” all Security Council measures and sanctions against North Korea, the G-7 ministers said.

The ministers said North Korea’s unprecedented series of unlawful ballistic missile launches this year “pose a serious threat to regional and international peace and security and undermine the global nonproliferation regime.”

The G-7 countries reiterated their demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear and missile programs “in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”

North Korea “cannot and will never have the status of a nuclear weapon state” in accordance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the G-7 ministers said.

The G-7 also expressed “its full solidarity” with Japan and South Korea.