UN Security Council asked to meet on Monday on North Korea missile launch

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet on Monday, two diplomats said, over North Korea’s test on Thursday of what Pyongyang said was an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The United States, France, Japan, Malta, South Korea, Slovenia and Britain requested the meeting, the diplomats said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned North Korea’s long-range ballistic missile, which is a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions, a U.N. spokesperson said.

“The Secretary-General remains concerned about the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. “Diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

North Korea has been under U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006 and the measures have been steadily strengthened over the years with the aim of halting Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.