SEOUL– The National Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution condemning North Korea’s recent series of military provocations and calling on Pyongyang to stop preparations for its seventh nuclear test.
The resolution passed the assembly’s plenary session with an endorsement of 190 out of 194 seated lawmakers. The remaining four were abstention votes.
“North Korea’s continuing provocations violate the Sept. 19 military agreement as well as the United Nations Security Council resolutions and are grave illegal actions threatening the peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Rep. Han Ki-ho of the ruling People Power Party said, explaining the resolution.
The Sept. 19 agreement refers to an inter-Korean military tensions reduction agreement signed in 2018.
Han said the resolution says the North should take responsibility for all consequences of its provocations, and calls on the South Korean government to strengthen its alliance with the United States and beef up the country’s security posture to achieve Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
The resolution came a day after North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile into the East Sea.
The North also launched 35 missiles into the East and Yellow Seas between last Wednesday and Saturday in protest against a massive combined air exercise of the U.S. and South Korea, called Vigilant Storm.
The minor progressive Justice Party, however, said it regrets the resolution contains hostile expressions, though it agrees Pyongyang should stop military threats and the issue should be resolved through a diplomatic way.
Source: Yonhap News Agency