UN council's response to N. Korea's provocations 'deplorable': S. Korean envoy

Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea's top envoy at the United Nations, speaks during a United Nations Security Council session in New York in this image captured from the U.N. website, Jan. 12. Yonhap

South Korea's top envoy to the United Nations expressed disappointment Thursday that the U.N. Security Council has failed to be united in responding to North Korea's recent provocations violating the council's resolutions against Pyongyang.

Addressing a session of the council, Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said it is "deplorable" that the council has failed to respond properly to the North's "plain, flagrant and repeated violations of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions" during its meetings on North Korea last year.

The North fired around 70 ballistic missiles last year, the most in a single year, including the Nov. 18 firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile. The U.S. pushed for formal documents condemning the North's recalcitrance or imposing additional sanctions. But such a drive produced no tangible results in the face of opposition from China and Russia, both veto power-wielding permanent members of the council. (Yonhap)