The UN Security Council(UNSC) has once again failed to take action over North Korea’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) launch.

The UNSC open session convened to address the matter on Thursday at the request of the United States, Britain and Japan was attended by South and North Korea as well in the capacity of interested parties.

North Korea made a rare request to speak at the meeting, the first time the country has attended and addressed the Council since December 2017.

North Korean Ambassador to the UN Kim Song defended the launch of a new ICBM as the exercise of the sovereign right to deter dangerous military action by hostile forces and to safeguard regional peace.

Kim claimed that combined military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. are raising the risk of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula, adding that the U.S. must take full responsibility for any tension created on the peninsula.

Ambassadors from western countries, including the U.S., Japan and France, condemned the North's recent ICBM launch in the strongest terms, calling for an official response by the Security Council.

However, the session failed to produce a resolution or any tangible outcome against the North’s recent provocation due to opposition from China and Russia who voiced opposition to any further action by the Council.

The two permanent members of the UNSC said that the North's missile launches were a reasonable response to combined military drills between South Korea and the U.S.