Joint Statement on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Recent Launches

Joint Statement Delivered by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the UN Security Council Stakeout on the Recent ICBM Launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
 
(The following is a joint statement delivered by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations, on behalf of Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.)
 
Good afternoon, and let me thank all of you for being here.
 
Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States condemn in the strongest possible terms the DPRK’s March 15 intercontinental ballistic missile launch. This was the DPRK’s second ICBM launched in 2023. We witnessed yet another ballistic missile launch on March 18. We are witnessing an unprecedented number of DPRK ballistic missile launches.
 
We cannot accept these launches as business as usual. This growing crisis threatens not only the region but global peace and stability. Each of these launches violate multiple Security Council resolutions. These unlawful launches jeopardize the safety of maritime and aviation travel and pose a clear threat to the global nonproliferation regime.
 
It is time the Security Council speaks again with one voice and sends a strong message to the DPRK to refrain from conducting further launches using ballistic missile technology and from a seventh nuclear test and to cease ongoing nuclear activities. Instead, we implore the DPRK to accept one of our many offers of dialogue. And we urge all Member States to join us in sending this message.
 
We also demand that the DPRK comply with its obligations under numerous Security Council resolutions and abandon its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible way.
 
We call on all member states to fully and expeditiously implement the Security Council resolutions and for Council members to follow through on their commitments. The DPRK has carried out this unprecedented spate of launches with impunity and in the absence of Council actions. We remain committed to diplomacy, and to that end the Security Council must overcome its prolonged silence and speak out against the DPRK’s destabilizing violations. The DPRK is testing the Council’s resolve and purpose, and the Council must act.
 
Thank you very much.