The Government of the Republic of Liberia condemns the fifth nuclear test on September 9 and before then, the recent decision by the Government of the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) to fire three ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on September 5, as leaders of the Group of 20 major economies held a summit in the People’s Republic of China.

The Government of Liberia views the continuous hedging of the DPRK as a flagrant violation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 1718, 1874, 2087, and 2094 that ban all ballistic missile-related activities by the DPRK.

The Government of Liberia considers this act as a blatant and calculated provocation which threatens to disrupt world peace in clear disregard of the DPRK’S commitments under the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six Party Talks.

The Government of the Republic of Liberia urges the DPRK to honor its international obligations under resolution 2094 of the United Nations, by virtue of which it is required to abandon all nuclear weapons and all existing nuclear programs in a completely verifiable and irreversible manner, and to desist from conducting any further nuclear tests which render great harm to the environment, thereby threatening the existence of humankind.

The DPRK has launched a series of missiles this year in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The 15-member Security Council has also condemned the launches.

The DPRK has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006. In March, the Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the country in response to its fourth nuclear test in January and the launch of a long-range rocket in February.