US, allies clash with China and Russia over North Korea's launches and threats to use nukes

Tensions rise in northeast Asia as U.S. and allies clash with China and Russia over North Korea's missile launches.

The United States and allies South Korea and Japan clashed with China and Russia on May 31 over North Korea’s latest satellite and ballistic missile launches and threats to use nuclear weapons that have escalated tensions in northeast Asia.

The scene was an emergency open meeting of the U.N. Security Council called after North Korea’s failed launch of a military reconnaissance satellite on May 27 and other launches using ballistic missile technology in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Since the beginning of 2022, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has launched over 100 missiles using this banned technology as it has advanced its nuclear weapons program. In response, the U.S. and its allies have carried out an increasing number of military exercises.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari briefed the council meeting saying sovereign countries have the right to benefit from peaceful space activities – but the DPRK is expressly prohibited from conducting launches using ballistic missile technology and its continuing violations undermine global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation treaties.

“We remain deeply concerned about growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Khiari said. “There is a need for practical measures to reduce tensions, reverse the dangerous dynamic, and create space to explore diplomatic avenues.”

North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Kim Song insisted that its satellite launches – and it had a successful one last November – are “the legitimate and universal right of a sovereign state” under international law and the Outer Space Treaty. He stressed that reconnaissance satellites are not only needed to strengthen its self-defence capabilities but to defend its sovereignty.

Mr. Kim told the Security Council that the “massive deployment of strategic assets and aggressive war exercises” by the United States on the Korean Peninsula and in the region have broken all records and destroyed the military balance.