The United Nations Security Council will likely convene an emergency meeting early next week to discuss countermeasures against North Korea's latest missile provocation, a government source said Saturday.
"An emergency meeting of the UNSC could be held early next week," the source said on the condition of anonymity. "But the exact date for the gathering can be determined after the weekend."
The meeting is expected to come in response to the North's claimed second successful and improved intercontinental ballistic missile test late Friday night following another one conducted on July 4.
(Yonhap)
The missile test, which runs counter to multiple UNSC sanctions resolutions, drew strong condemnation from South Korea, the US, Japan and even China.
In a meeting with her staff on Saturday, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha called for efforts to induce the UNSC to convene and swiftly adopt a strong sanctions resolution to punish North Korea.
Earlier this month, the UNSC failed to adopt a press statement condemning the North's ICBM launch on July 4 due apparently to opposition from Russia, one of five permanent veto-wielding council members.
The source worried that tensions could further mount, especially when South Korea and the US are scheduled to hold joint military drills in August.
"Things should be managed with the possibility in mind that tensions surrounding the Korean Peninsula could further rise," he said.
As for a possible trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of South Korea, the US and Japan on the sidelines of the upcoming ASEAN meetings, he said that there is precedent and that things will likely be determined based on the unfolding situation.
Multiple ASEAN meetings, including the ASEAN Regional Forum, will be held in Manila, the Philippines, early next month.
The ARF, in particular, is a rare regional security forum to which North Korea usually sends its top diplomat almost every year.
It is raising the possibility that there could be a meeting between foreign ministers of the two Koreas. The foreign ministry here has not ruled it out, nor has it confirmed any plan for such a meeting.
"There is no finalized stance (on the issue)," he said. "But following the North's provocation, there seems to be more reason to be careful in deciding whether to have (even) a brief greeting (with the North Korean counterpart)." (Yonhap)
