U.S. to ask UN Security Council to meet on North Korea

The United States will ask the United Nations Security Council to meet publicly on Wednesday on North Korea, a U.S. official said, after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years.

Any meaningful action by the 15-member council is unlikely, diplomats say.

North Korea has for years been banned from conducting nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches by the U.N. Security Council, which has strengthened sanctions on Pyongyang over the years to try and cut off funding for those programs.

In recent years, veto-powers China and Russia have suggested U.N. sanctions on North Korea be eased for humanitarian purposes and to entice Pyongyang back to stalled international talks aimed at convincing leader Kim Jong Un to denuclearize.