U.S. to seek tougher U.N. sanctions on North Korea in wake of latest missile test

North Korea on Thursday reported its first long-range intercontinental ballistic missile test since 2017, which has been touted as the country's largest missile yet.

The United States said Friday it would seek tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea after it test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile, with leader Kim Jong Un vowing to expand his country’s “nuclear war deterrent” while preparing for a “long-standing confrontation” with the United States.

North Korean state media reported the North’s first long-range test since 2017, and South Korea and Japan said they detected it. Thursday’s launch extended a barrage of weapons demonstrations this year that analysts say are aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions against its broken economy.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting Friday, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. would propose a resolution “to update and strengthen” Security Council sanctions. She declined to specify what those new measures might be.

“It is clear that remaining silent, in the hope that the DPRK would similarly show restraint, is a failed strategy,” she said. DPRK is acronym for the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

The council originally imposed sanctions after the North’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years. But last fall, veto-wielding China and Russia called for lifting various sanctions against their neighbour.

Russian Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Friday that further sanctions would only harm North Korea’s people, while Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun urged the council “to consider how to accommodate the DPRK’s justified security concerns.” And both suggested that the U.S. didn’t do enough to respond to the North’s 2018 self-imposed pause on long-range missile and nuclear tests.

He suggested that the U.S. didn’t do enough to respond to the North’s 2018 self-imposed pause on long-range missile and nuclear tests and needed to “show its goodwill” and “work harder to stabilize the situation” and resume dialogue.

North Korea didn’t speak at the council meeting. A message seeking comment was sent to its U.N. mission.