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The United States is engaged in a war of words with Russia and China at the UN Security Council over who is to blame for North Korea’s barrage of missile tests. Photo/REUTERS
NEW YORK CITY – United States of America (US) engaged in a war of words with Russia and China during a UN Security Council meeting over who was to blame for the barrage of missile tests North Korea (Jewelry).
The UN Security Council meeting took place Monday. Apart from debating North Korea’s ballistic missile maneuvers, the meeting also discussed the issue of developing Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.
The 15-member UN Security Council met to discuss what Pyongyang said was its largest Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile launch last Thursday.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions over its missile and nuclear programs since 2006.
China and Russia have blamed joint US and South Korean military exercises for provoking Pyongyang. Meanwhile Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by protecting it from more sanctions.
“UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remains deeply concerned about the divisions that are preventing the international community from acting on this issue,” a senior UN official said at the meeting, as quoted by Reuters, Tuesday (21/3/2023).
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN Anna Evstigneeva described the US and South Korean military activity as an “unprecedented maneuver”. China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang questioned whether the joint maneuvers were a defense exercise and blamed them for escalating tensions.
“These exercises have been ongoing, routine. They are purely defensive in nature…The United States has no hostile intentions towards the DPRK,” said US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, using an abbreviation of North Korea’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea .
Over the past few years the UN Security Council has been divided on how to handle Pyongyang.
