North Korean missile tests violated UN sanctions: US NSA

TIL Desk/World/Tokyo/ North Korea’s missile launches earlier this month violated UN Security Council resolutions, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Saturday in an apparent change in Washington’s stance on the tests.

Trump initially declared he was “not happy” with the missile tests carried out on May 4 and 9 but then played down their importance by calling them “standard stuff”.

“In terms of violating Security Council resolutions, there is no doubt about that,” Bolton told reporters in Tokyo in advance of the US President’s four-day visit to Japan.

“I think the Prime Minister and President are going to talk about making sure the integrity of the Security Council resolutions are maintained,” he said, referring to a Monday summit meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump.

It is the first time that a high official in Trump’s administration described the North Korean tests as violating UN sanctions. Until now, both South Korea and the US downplayed the launches, which were supervised by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.