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2016 September 7 - 13 TOP3 [JCP]

Shii slams North Korea for N-weapons test

North Korea on September 9 conducted its fifth nuclear test since October 2006. The country continues testing at an obsessively rapid pace following the one in January this year.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo issued the following statement condemning North Korea’s act:

North Korea today pushed ahead with its fifth nuclear test. The conduct of North Korea, along with its repeated ballistic missile launches, represents a serious threat to world peace and stability. Its reckless act violates not only the relevant UN Security Council resolutions calling on the country to abandon its nuclear and missile development but also the Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks as well as the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration.

The JCP severely denounces North Korea’s unlawful and reckless act.

The UNSC resolution adopted unanimously on March 3 “condemns in the strongest terms” the nuclear test and the ballistic missile launch conducted by North Korea. Deciding to apply more effective sanctions, the UNSC “[r]eaffirms its support to the Six-Party Talks, calls for their resumption, and reiterates its support for the commitments set forth in the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005”.

In order to have North Korea give up its nuclear weapons and missile programs, to persuade the country to sit at the negotiating table in the Six-Party Talks has now become ever more urgent.

To achieve this, the international community should band together to drastically reinforce political diplomatic efforts, including the strict full implementation of the sanctions.

I strongly warn North Korea that if it continues to pursue a course toward a nuclear arms buildup, it will surely deepen its international isolation and jeopardize its future.