Britain summons DPRK ambassador over missile launch

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) ambassador to Britain was on Tuesday summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office following the nation's recent ballistic missile launch, the foreign office announced.

"The UK fully supports the UN Security Council's strong condemnation" of DPRK's recent ballistic missile launch, a foreign office statement quoted a spokeswoman as saying.

The statement urged DPRK "to stop its provocative actions, which threaten international peace and security, and instead re-engage with the international community, and take credible, concrete steps to prioritise the well-being of its own people instead of the nuclear and ballistic missile programmes."

"The Ambassador was asked to convey this message to Pyongyang in the strongest possible terms," the spokeswoman said.

The statement followed the UN Security Council's unanimous condemnation of the DPRK's most recent launches of ballistic missiles on Sunday and in October last year.

DPRK on Monday said it successfully test-fired a surface-to-surface medium-and long-range ballistic missile Pukguksong-2, according to the state news agency KCNA.

Under relevant UN resolutions, the DPRK is barred from staging ballistic missile launches or nuclear weapons tests.

source: Xinhua