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.



The Scale of Afghans Returning from Iran is Overwhelming, Says UN Official

Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)
Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)
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The Scale of Afghans Returning from Iran is Overwhelming, Says UN Official

Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)
Afghan refugees who returned after fleeing Iran to escape deportation and conflict arrive at a UNHCR facility near the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Omid Haqjoo)

The pace and scale of Afghans returning from Iran are overwhelming already fragile support systems, a senior UN official warned Tuesday, with tens of thousands of people crossing the border daily exhausted and traumatized, relying on humanitarian aid.

So far this year, more than 1.4 million people have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan, including over 1 million from Iran.

Iran and Pakistan in 2023 launched separate campaigns to expel foreigners they said were living in the country illegally. They set deadlines and threatened them with deportation if they didn’t leave. The two governments deny targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland over the decades to escape war, poverty or Taliban rule, The AP news reported.

The UN special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, called for immediate international support for Afghanistan following a visit to the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat province near Iran.

The “sheer volume of returns —many abrupt, many involuntary,” should be setting off alarm bells across the global community, Otunbayeva said.

“Without swift interventions, remittance losses, labor market pressures and cyclical migration will lead to devastating consequences such as the further destabilization of both returnee and host populations, renewed displacement, mass onward movement, and risks to regional stability,” she said.

Returns from Iran peaked in June following a 20 March government deadline requiring all “undocumented” Afghans to leave. The UN migration agency recorded more than 28,000 people crossing back into Afghanistan on June 25.

Afghanistan is a ‘forgotten crisis’ Most Afghans depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. But deep funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations forced to cut education and health care programs.

Nicole van Batenburg, from the International Federation of the Red Cross, said Afghan children returning from Iran are developing scabies, fever and other illnesses because of deteriorating conditions at the border and the hot weather. Her colleagues were reuniting hundreds of children daily who got separated from their parents.

People lost their belongings and documents in the chaos of hasty exits. Most were only able to take a few suitcases with them, and some were now using their luggage as makeshift furniture.

“Afghanistan is an unseen crisis, and there are so many crises going on at this moment in the world that it seems to be forgotten,” van Batenburg told The Associated Press by phone from the border.

“The problems and the challenges are immense. We’re only talking about the situation here at the border, but these people have to return to some areas where they can live longer and where they can rebuild their lives.”

Last week, the Norwegian Refugee Council said many of its staff were hosting returning families in their homes. Authorities were doing their best to mobilize the few resources they had, but local systems were not equipped to cope with “such tremendous” needs.