The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution in response to North Korea’s December 12th rocket launch, inciting an instant response from the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The council voted unanimously to approve the resolution on the afternoon of the 22nd (EST), concluding a lengthy period of negotiation between members led by the United States and China, which had sought to limit its scope.
The resolution slaps sanctions on six additional North Korean entities not sanctioned under previous resolutions, including the ‘Korean Committee for Space Technology,’ which the UN says orchestrated the December launch, ‘Bank of East Land,’ which “supports weapons-related transactions,” and a Hong Kong-based entity called ‘Leader International.’ It also places a travel ban on four previously unnamed North Korean officials: the heads of both the country’s satellite command and control center and its West Sea Launch Center, and two individuals in the banking sector.
The council further “demands that [North Korea] not proceed with any further launches using ballistic missile technology,” and “abandon all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner; immediately cease all related activities; and not conduct any further launches that use ballistic missile technology, nuclear test or any further provocation.”
North Korea responded to the resolution swiftly and with characteristic anger. In the statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pyongyang asserted that such a resolution is completely unreasonable since there is no other way to launch satellites other than with ballistic missile technology.
It went on to “strongly denounce” the decision of the UN Security Council, calling it an infringement of North Korean sovereignty, before declaring that its development of satellites and the carrier rockets that launch them will continue, and that it will keep exercising the sovereign right to the peaceful use of space.
It also said that Korean Peninsula denuclearization is certain to be impossible without pre-existing global denuclearization, and that it will now move to enhance its nuclear deterrent and other military capabilities in response.
