UN Security Council to meet on North Korea missile launches

UNITED NATIONS: Britain, Germany and France have asked the United Nations Security Council to meet behind closed doors on Thursday on North Korea's latest missile launches, diplomats said.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles early on Wednesday, the South Korean military said, only days after Pyongyang launched two similar missiles intended to pressure South Korea and the United States to stop upcoming military drills.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believed the missile launches were "just another reminder of the importance of restarting talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Ballistic missile launches by North Korea violate UN security council resolutions aimed at pressing the country to abandon its nuclear weapons program and Pyongyang is subject to extensive international sanctions over its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

The tests have come despite a meeting between North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump on June 30 at which they agreed to revive stalled denuclearization talks.

Both Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, played down last week's launches and Pompeo has continued to express hope for a diplomatic way forward with North Korea, which has been demanding relief from punishing US sanctions and for Seoul and Washington to call off the joint exercises planned for this month.

Pompeo and the top US North Korea negotiator are attending an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in the Thai capital this week, and Pompeo said he was holding out hope that US officials could meet North Korean counterparts there.

North Korea has said the military drills could derail dialogue and has also warned of a possible end to its freeze on nuclear and long-range missile tests in place since 2017, which Trump has repeatedly held up as evidence of the success of more than a year of engagement with Kim.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho canceled a planned visit to the ASEAN forum, but Pompeo told reporters traveling with him the Americans were still open to a meeting and he hoped US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and his new North Korean counterpart could meet soon.

Trump has continued to hail his good personal relationship with Kim and some analysts believe North Korea will be emboldened to press more aggressively for US concessions by the US leader's apparent eagerness to hold up his North Korea policy as a success in his 2020 re-election bid.

On Wednesday, North Korea's state news agency called the joint exercises "the root cause of confrontation and war," and said a permanent halt to them was a prerequisite for improving inter-Korean relations and ensuring peace on the Korean peninsula.

It said moves by the United States and South Korea to rename the drills were simply double-dealing that proved "confrontational maniacs remain unchanged in their black-hearted intention to stifle" North Korea by force.

A top South Korean official said last month the drills would mainly involve computer simulations rather than troops in the field.

A summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February collapsed after they failed to reconcile differences between Washington's demands for Pyongyang's complete denuclearization and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.