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UN Security Council to meet Tuesday over North Korea missile launch

Agencies
United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY, United StatesUpdated: May 15, 2017, 05:32 AM IST
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The test comes a week after North Korea tested a missile which it said was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. (Representative image) Photograph:(AFP)

The United Nations Security Council is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss North Korea's latest missile launch, diplomats said on Sunday. 

North Korea fired a ballistic missile that landed in the sea near Russia on Sunday. 

It was the North's second missile firing in two weeks, and came amid mounting international concern over Pyongyang's progress in developing nuclear weapons that could be carried by long-range missiles.

The latest projectile, launched from a military base in Kusong near the country's northwest coast, traveled some 435 miles (700 kilometers) before landing in the Sea of Japan. 

"There are no excuses that justify N. Korea's actions," Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, tweeted. "This was close to home for Russia. China cant expect dialogue. This threat is real."

In Brussels, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu called Pyongyang's move "a new flagrant breach of a series of United Nations Security Council Resolutions," constituting "a threat to international peace and security."

And EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic denounced the launch as "a threat to international peace and security (that could) further aggravate tensions in the region at a time when de-escalation is instead needed."

For weeks, the Trump administration has been demanding a tightening of sanctions against the North and urging a tougher stance by Beijing, Pyongyang's principal ally.

(Agencies)