UN Security Council To Hold Emergency Meeting On North Korea On Monday: Diplomats

The UN Security Council will hold a closed door, informal meeting Monday on North Korea, after Pyongyang's latest suspected missile test, diplomats said.

The meeting was requested by Washington, the diplomats said, and comes after North Korean state media said Pyongyang carried out a test Saturday for what it said was a reconnaissance satellite, but which analysts said was a thinly-veiled ballistic missile launch.

One diplomat said that, in addition to exchanging information on the latest test, the Council should pressure North Korea's ally China to issue a joint statement.

"We would just need a very small statement" on the tests "to show North Korea the unity of the Council" towards it, said the diplomat on condition of anonymity.

Beijing has refused to join any Security Council moves on North Korea since 2017, when the UN imposed economic sanctions on Pyongyang.

North Korea carried out "another important test" towards the development of a reconnaissance satellite, its state media said Sunday.

Seoul said Saturday that it believed the test -- which came just days before South Korea votes to elect a new president on Wednesday -- was a ballistic missile launch.

North Korea is under biting international sanctions for its nuclear weapons programs, but peaceful satellite launches are not subject to the same level of restrictions -- although they use much of the same technology.

Pyongyang has doubled-down on leader Kim Jong Un's drive to modernize its military as it ignores US offers of talks and threatens to abandon a self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

In January Pyongyang test-fired a string of banned weaponry, from hypersonic to medium-range ballistic missiles.

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