US envoy hits back at suggestion US provoked DPRK
US Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, hit back on August 3 at suggestions that a United States decision to deploy an advanced anti-missile defense system in the Republic of Korea (RoK) had provoked recent ballistic missile tests by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
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Pyongyang's ally China has said Washington's decision last month to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would only worsen tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The DPRK threatened a physical response to the deployment decision.
Speaking after the UN Security Council met on DPRK's missile launch on August 3, which landed in Japanese controlled waters for the first time, Power said the anti-missile system was to defend against the threat by the DPRK.
"Any notion that there's some predicate by anybody other than Kim Jong Un and the DPRK regime is not grounded in reality and it's not grounded in history," Power told reporters after the closed-door meeting, in reference to the DPRK's leader.
China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi said that nothing should be done to exacerbate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
The 15-member Security Council met at the request of Japan and the United States following the latest in a series of launches by isolated DPRK in defiance of Security Council resolutions.
"The missile landed within Japan's exclusive economic zone. There was no warning whatsoever," Japan's UN Ambassador Koro Bessho told reporters. "It is certainly a major, major problem for the security and safety of our region."
The RoK's UN Ambassador Oh Joon said that this year the DPRK had conducted 13 rounds of ballistic missile tests, firing 29 various rockets.
