Security Council text on DPR Korea nuclear tests expected this week – President

The President of the United Nations Security Council said today that the 15-member body could have a draft resolution on the recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in a few days.

“I hope we will have something during the course of this week,” Ambassador Baki Ilkin of Turkey, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council for June, told reporters in New York.

Last week Council members “voiced their strong opposition to and condemnation of” the nuclear test conducted by DPRK on 25 May, and started work on a resolution on the matter.

It said the test was a “clear violation” of a 2006 resolution adopted shortly after Pyongyang detonated its first nuclear device. That resolution demanded that the country “not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile.”

“It’s a highly complex text… It takes time, and we must get it right,” Mr. Ilkin said of the text currently under consideration.

“What is important is that we do have this resolution that has an impact on what we want to achieve on the DPRK,” he added.

Asked if there was a sense of urgency, Mr. Ilkin said, “The sense of urgency is there. Everyone is aware of the sense of urgency.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week said the tests jeopardize continuing global efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament.

Mr. Ban, addressing Finland’s Parliament in Helsinki, said DPRK’s nuclear test and its subsequent launch of short-range missiles not only “create tension in the region,” but “will also pose serious implications to peace and security on the regional and global level.”

On whether any effort was made to contact representatives of the DPRK to get their side of the story, Mr. Ilkin said, “Every side knows exactly what the other side expects from one another. And in the case of Korea ... they know exactly what the international community wants.”

“They want them to stop these tests,” he said.