As a result of the DPRK’s recent nuclear testing, the United Nations Security Council (“UNSC”) held on Wednesday an emergency meeting called by the US, Japan and South Korea. Following the meeting, the UNSC released a pressstatement condemning the country’s actions, and announcing that it will immediately begin considering the “significant measures” which it had promised to take in the event of further nuclear testing by the country.
The UNSC will now start negotiating the content of any further measures against the DPRK. The negotiations could take weeks given that following the country’s previous nuclear test on 12 February 2013, additional sanctions wereannounced only on 7 March 2013. If new measures are adopted at the UN level, the EU and US will follow suit, though it is not impossible for the EU and US to go beyond the UNSC measures which have to be agreed by the 5 permanent UNSC members.
The UNSC view the DPRK’s actions as a violation of Security Resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), and 2094 (2013), and of the non-proliferation regime. The DPRK has now confirmed four nuclear tests since 2006, but this is the first time it has claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb.
