The latest test came a day after the US mission to the United Nations, joined by France, Ireland, Japan, the United Kingdom and Albania, issued a joint statement condemning last week’s test.
“These actions increase the risk of miscalculation and escalation and pose a significant threat to regional stability,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in the statement on Monday.
Such tests not only improve the North’s capabilities, but expand what it can offer to illicit arms clients and dealers around the world, she added.
“(North Korea) makes these military investments at the expense of the well-being of the North Korean people,” she said.
Thomas-Greenfield reiterated calls for North Korea to return to talks and abandon its missiles and nuclear weapons.
“Our goal remains the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” she said.
South Korean military officials last Friday cast doubts on the capabilities of the hypersonic missile North Korea claimed to have test fired last week, saying that it appeared to represent limited progress over Pyongyang’s existing ballistic missiles.
UN Security Council resolutions ban all ballistic missile and nuclear tests by North Korea, and have imposed sanctions over the programmes.
North Korea has said that it is open to talks, but only if the US and others drop “hostile policies” such as sanctions and military drills.
Few observers expect Kim to ever fully surrender his nuclear arsenal. North Korea argues that its missile tests and other military activities are for self-defence and are similar to those regularly undertaken by other nations.
Source: CNA