North Korea fired off a projectile suspected of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on December 18, 2023, a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the East Sea from a launch site near Pyongyang on December 17. It was North Korea's fifth ICBM, including "Hawseong-18," a solid-propellant rocket, launched this year.
The UN Security Council meeting was held on December 19, a day after the United States and other UN Security Council members called for an emergency meeting to address Pyongyang's launch of ICBM. Through a statement, the U.S. claimed that North Korea's test launches violate multiple Security Council resolutions.
Kim, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in a statement released through the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang's state news agency, on December 21: "I am very unpleasant at the fact that the UN Security Council called the open meeting according to the brigandish demand of the United States and its vassal forces and brought up the sovereign right of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) for discussion by questioning it, and strongly denounce it."
She also sent out a stern warning to the UN Security Council that it should impose heavy responsibility on "various kinds of military provocations," by the U.S. and South Korea. Kim stressed that joint military drills by the U.S. and South Korean forces resemble preparations for armed invasion.
North Korea kicked into full gear on military preparations in 2023. Including the test launch of ICBMs and ballistic missiles, Pyongyang also put a military spy satellite, designed to monitor military movements of the U.S. and South Korean forces, into orbit in November. Sending a satellite into space is technically similar to sending a nuclear warhead into orbit. While a satellite is designed to orbit the Earth, a warhead is designed to decrease altitude after reaching its maximum height to fly to its destination.
