China and Russia on Friday ignored a US call for the UN Security Council to unite in condemning North Korea for its attempted satellite launch this week, instead accusing Washington of raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Robert Wood, a diplomat at the U.N. mission in Washington, made the call at a U.N. Security Council meeting called by the United States and allies to discuss Wednesday’s failed launch, which the U.S. says violated several U.N. resolutions because it used ballistic missile technology.
“We call on all council members to maintain the council’s credibility, join us in condemning this illegal behavior and urge the DPRK not to proceed with its declared plan to conduct another launch that will continue to pose a threat to international peace and security,” he added. ” Wood said.
DPRK is the initials of the official name of North Korea
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said after the launch that her country would soon put a military spy satellite into orbit and vowed that Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities.
China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Geng Shuang, told the UN meeting that North Korea has “legitimate security concerns” and the Security Council should support de-escalation and not point the finger at one side.
Geng and Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Anna Evstigneeva criticized the United States for raising tensions with joint military executions with South Korea.
After Geng spoke, Wood took the floor again, noting that “at no point did the representative of the Chinese delegation condemn this DPRK space launch.”
Geng responded by saying there was a need for genuine dialogue that would take into account North Korea’s concerns.
“The United States says the door of diplomacy is open, but at the same time it is consistently conducting military activities on the peninsula and in the surrounding areas,” he said.
Lana Nusseibeh, the ambassador to the current chairman of the United Arab Emirates Security Council, noted that North Korea had warned in advance of the missile launch, but added that “such warnings neither legitimize nor reduce the illegality of the DPRK’s launch.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said this week that any launch by Pyongyang using ballistic missile technology would violate Security Council resolutions.
Kim Yo Jong called criticism of the launch a “contradiction” because the US and other countries had already launched “thousands of satellites”.
