US calls for emergency meeting of UNSC to discuss N. Korean missile launch: report

WASHINGTON -- The United States on Monday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) this week to discuss North Korea's latest missile provocation, a news report said.

The US requested the emergency meeting be held on Wednesday, the AFP reported, quoting unidentified diplomats.

The move comes after North Korea fired an apparent submarine-launched ballistic missile on Saturday (Seoul time) in its 15th missile launch of the year.

Ned Price, spokesperson for the US state department, emphasized the need for the UNSC to act and hold North Korea accountable.

"The UN Security Council has an important role to play and has an important role to play that it has exercised in the past," he said when asked if the Security Council was the right venue to address Pyongyang's recent missile provocations.

"These (missile launches) have been in violation of multiple Security Council resolutions. The fact that these resolutions are on the books points to the utility that the Security Council, that the UN system can have in confronting North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program," he added.

US efforts to push for a new UNSC resolution on North Korea this year have so far been blocked by Russia and China, both veto power-wielding permanent members of the Security Council and close allies of North Korea.

"It's incumbent upon all countries, certainly including the five (permanent) members of the UN Security Council to see to it that UN Security Council resolutions are fully implemented, fully applied, because countries around the world, including the five permanent council members, those members that voted in support of these and other resolutions have recognized the fact that the DPRK's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs are a threat to international peace and security," said Price.

DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield earlier said the US will seek to hold a vote on a new UNSC resolution against North Korea it drafted earlier in the year to condemn North Korea's repeated missile provocations.

The US assumed the monthlong presidency of the UN Security Council on May 1. (Yonhap)