TOKYO, April 14. /TASS/. The Japanese government has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in connection with North Korea’s latest missile launch on April 13, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press briefing on Friday.
"In connection with North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile yesterday, we have requested to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and the details are currently being negotiated," he said.
"It is extremely regrettable that the UN Security Council has failed to react to North Korea's repeated violations of the Security Council’s own resolutions," Matsuno said, alluding to the fact that Russia and China had previously invoked their veto rights to block draft resolutions aimed at toughening sanctions on North Korea.
North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency reported earlier that the country had run its first-ever test-launch of the Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had overseen the launch.
The Hwasong-18 ICBM was tested early on April 13. The test triggered Japan’s J-Alert satellite warning system, which issued an emergency evacuation warning for residents of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. The warning was lifted some time later because the missile’s fragments fell outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan.
The event marked North Korea’s 12th missile launch this year, in nine of which ballistic missiles were tested.