Ban welcomes Security Council's unified message on N. Korean rocket launch

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, April 13 (Yonhap) -- United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Monday welcomed the adoption of a statement by the U.N. Security Council to denounce North Korea's rocket launch last week and to call for tougher implementation of sanctions under a previous resolution.

"The Secretary-General welcomes the adoption of a statement by the President of
the Security Council, which sends a unified message of the international
community on the recent launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,"
Ban's office said in a statement released soon after the Security Council action.
The council's statement was adopted unanimously and read by Mexico's U.N.
ambassador Claude Heller, the rotating chairman of the Security Council this
month, less than 10 minutes after the full session convened in the afternoon,
eight days after North Korea launched the rocket on April 5, claiming it had put
a communications satellite into space.
The presidential statement "condemns the April 5, 2009, launch by the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, which is in contravention of Security Council
Resolution 1718." The DPRK is North Korea's official name.
It also demands that North Korea refrain from any further ballistic missile
launches and return to the six-party talks, which are deadlocked over how to
verify its past and current nuclear activities.
Ban, former South Korean foreign minister, expressed hope that "the Council's
unified response will pave the way for renewed efforts towards the peaceful
resolution of all outstanding issues in the region, including through the early
resumption of the Six-Party Talks and the inter-Korean dialogue."
"The Secretary-General stands ready to lend his full support to these efforts,"
said the statement.