Chairman Kerry Calls For Unified And Stern Response To North Korea's Missile Test

Washington, D.C.-- Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) released the following statement in response to North Korea's Missile Test:

"North Korea's launch of a Taepo Dong missile is a provocative act that calls for a stern, unified response from the members of the Six Party Talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The United States should immediately call on the international community to strictly enforce UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1695. Those resolutions require all nations to restrict North Korea's ability to acquire the technologies needed to advance its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them.

North Korea's leaders have yet to realize that the only way for them to achieve genuine security is to abandon their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. North Korea's present course promises only continued diplomatic isolation and economic malaise. Despite the DPRK's counterproductive military posturing, the United States, in concert with our friends and allies, will steadfastly and patiently pursue a negotiated resolution to the North Korean nuclear crisis.