US Calls for Emergency UN Security Council Meeting on N.Korea

File photo of UN Security Council chamber in New York. Timothy A. Clary, AFP
File photo of UN Security Council chamber in New York. Timothy A. Clary, AFP
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US Calls for Emergency UN Security Council Meeting on N.Korea

File photo of UN Security Council chamber in New York. Timothy A. Clary, AFP
File photo of UN Security Council chamber in New York. Timothy A. Clary, AFP

The United States has requested an emergency meeting on Thursday of the UN Security Council on North Korea, which launched its most powerful missile since 2017 last weekend, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to be held behind closed doors. It is up to Russia, the president of the Security Council for the month of February, to confirm the timing, said AFP.

"We really do hope that the Council will be able to speak with one voice" with a declaration, a diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity said.

North Korea confirmed on Monday it had fired a Hwasong-12 "ground-to-ground intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile," in its first test since 2017 of a weapon that powerful.

Earlier Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the launch as "a clear violation of Security Council resolutions."

"At least what we should insist upon is that the Council would urge DPRK to respect UN Security Council resolutions," the anonymous diplomat added, referring to the country's official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"If the Council is not even able to call for respect of its own decisions, we have a problem."

North Korea is "making steady progress on ballistic, improving the range, the precisions and the lethality of its missiles," he said.

The country has both nuclear and ballistic missile technologies, the diplomat said.

"At some stage if you mix the two technologies, which they don't seem to have been able to manage until now...the threat will be absolutely intolerable," he said.

US envoy to North Korea Sung Kim has discussed the latest launch with South Korean and Japanese authorities in recent days, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

"Special Representative Kim condemned the DPRK’s ballistic missile launches as violations of UN Security Council resolutions and destabilizing to the region," Price said, underscoring the US's "ironclad commitment" to help defend allies Japan and South Korea and to pursue diplomatic solutions with North Korea.

The test on Sunday was North Korea's seventh in January -- the most ever carried out by the country in a calendar month, raising fears Pyongyang could renew nuclear and intercontinental missile tests.

The test broke a 2018 moratorium by Pyongyang.

In 2017, the UN Security Council on three occasions decided unanimously to impose new heavy economic sanctions on Pyongyang for its nuclear and missile tests.

The sanctions, the Council's latest show of unity over North Korea, target the country's oil imports as well as its coal, iron, textile or fishing exports.



Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says

A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Israel Killed 30 Iranian Security Chiefs and 11 Nuclear Scientists, Israeli Official Says

A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists to deliver a major blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions, a senior Israeli military official said on Friday in summarizing Israel's 12-day air war with Iran.

In the United States, an independent expert said a review of commercial satellite imagery showed only a small number of the approximately 30 Iranian missiles that penetrated Israel's air defenses managed to hit any militarily significant targets.

"Iran has yet to produce missiles that demonstrate great accuracy," Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at the CNA Corporation specializing in satellite imagery, told Reuters.

In Israel, the senior military official said Israel's June 13 opening strike on Iran severely damaged its aerial defenses and destabilized its ability to respond in the critical early hours of the conflict.

Israel's air force struck over 900 targets and the military deeply damaged Iran's missile production during the war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire, the official said.

"The Iranian nuclear project suffered a major blow: The regime's ability to enrich uranium to 90% was neutralized for a prolonged period. Its current ability to produce a nuclear weapon core has been neutralized," the official said.

Iran, which denies trying to build nuclear weapons, retaliated against the strikes with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities. Iran said it forced the end of the war by penetrating Israeli defenses.

Iranian authorities said 627 people were killed in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on the media. Israeli authorities said 28 people were killed in Israel.

Eveleth, the independent US expert, said Iran's missile forces were not accurate enough to destroy small military targets like US-made F-35 jet fighters in their shelters.

"Because of this the only targets they can hit with regularity are large cities or industrial targets like the refinery at Haifa," he told Reuters.

Iranian missile salvos, which were limited by Israeli airstrikes in Iran, did not have the density to achieve high rates of destruction, he wrote on X.

"At the current level of performance, there is effectively nothing stopping Israel from conducting the same operation in the future with similar results," he wrote.

In a statement on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had directed the military to draft plans to safeguard air superiority over Iran, prevent nuclear development and missile production, and address Iran's support for militant operations against Israel.

Israel's military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General, Eyal Zamir, said on Friday the outcome in Iran could help advance Israeli objectives against the Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.

Zamir told troops in Gaza an Israeli ground operation, known as "Gideon's Chariots," would in the near future achieve its goal of greater control of the Palestinian enclave and present options to Israel's government for further action.