World condemns N Korea’s missile test

Reactions to North Korea’s test firing of a ballistic missile into the sea early Sunday has come quick and hard.

US President Donald Trump and visiting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a joint press conference to condemn Pyongyang’s missile test.

“Absolutely intolerable,” Abe said of the test as he demanded that North Korea comply with a number of UN Security Council resolutions.

Trump also strongly condemned North Korea’s actions and said that the “United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent”.

The missile flew about 500 kilometers before falling into the east sea.

South Korea also lambasted the test launch saying it was a “serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and to the international community”.

Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) rebuked North Korea’s missile launch calling the action “provocative and unacceptable”.

It strongly condemned Pyongyang’s violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

“The DPRK must halt all launches using ballistic missile technology and abandon once and for all its ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, as required by the UN Security Council,” a spokesperson of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s diplomatic service, said in a statement.