Japan to adopt parliamentary resolution to protest North Korea's missile launch

Tokyo, Feb 8: Bipartisan lawmakers in Japan will convene on Tuesday and are widely expected to adopt a resolution protesting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) launch of a long range rocket on Sunday.

Both ruling and opposition party representatives confirmed on Monday that a plenary session of each of Japan's parliamentary caucuses will convene Tuesday to adopt the resolution, Xinhua reported.

Both political camps, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), have issued statements condemning the DPRK's launch as being in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, as well as its nuclear test last month as being a threat to global security.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for the government here to swiftly move to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of the launch, possibly ahead of new punitive measures that might be adopted by the UN Security Council.

Japan has officially lodged a protest against the DPRK's launch of what it has said was an earth observation satellite, but believed by Japan and others to be a test of ballistic missile technology, through its diplomatic channels in Beijing.

The DPRK is banned from test-firing any rockets based on a ballistic missile technology under UN Security Council resolutions and such a test has not been conducted since 2012.

IANS