Anchor: U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson has strongly denounced North Korea’s Sunday missile launch, calling it disappointing and disturbing. The UN Security Council(UNSC) plans to hold an emergency meeting to discuss countermeasures against the North’s latest missile provocation. 
Alannah Hill has this report.
 
Report: Washington had been signaling for a more engaging attitude toward Pyongyang, saying it will keep the door open to dialogue with North Korea on the condition the regime will change its behaviors.
 
However, as the North continues its provocative actions, the U.S. expressed its disappointment.
 
[Sound bite: U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson ]
"The ongoing testing is disappointing, it's disturbing, and we ask that they cease that. Because until they cease that testing, clearly they have not changed their view."
 
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, U.S. State Secretary Rex Tillerson said he hoped the North gets the message that continuing nuclear development is not a pathway to security or peace.
 
Tillerson said the U.S. is currently applying an early phase of economic and diplomatic pressure on the North, indicating that it could impose stronger sanctions on the regime.
 
The UN Security Council(UNSC) decided to hold a closed-door meeting on Tuesday to discuss responses to the North’s latest provocation.
 
As the UNSC is set to hold an emergency meeting for a second consecutive week to discuss the North’s missile launches, attention is being drawn to whether the UN body will slap additional sanctions on the defiant regime.
 
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said there are many areas in which the U.S. can sanction the North, including oil, shipping, and exports.
 
The latest North Korean missile launch has significantly raised the possibility the regime will face stronger pressure, such as Washington’s own sanction measures or more UN sanctions, as the international community tries to bring the North back to the negotiating table. 
Alannah Hill, KBS World Radio News.

[Photo : ]