G7 Urge UN Security Council to Act Against N.Korea

G7 foreign ministers urged the UN Security Council on Sunday to take "further significant measures" against North Korea to stop its provocations. 

The UNSC has recently failed to either adopt a fresh resolution or take further sanctions against North Korea as China and Russia threatened to veto them. 

In a statement Sunday, two days after the North tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the G7 foreign ministers said the renegade country's actions "demand a united and robust response by the international community, including the need for further significant measures to be taken by the UN Security Council." 

They added the North "cannot and will never have the status of a nuclear-weapon state in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) or any other special status in this regard." 

The UNSC called an urgent open meeting on Monday to discuss the latest provocation but failed to adopt a resolution in the face of vetoes by China and Russia. 

Meanwhile, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui blasted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for joining U.S.-led condemnation of the North's ICBM test.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Monday, she said, "I express my strong regret over the fact that the UN secretary-general has taken a very deplorable attitude, oblivious of the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and its proper mission, which is to maintain impartiality, objectivity and equity in all matters."