Photo/Illutration South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a ceremony marking the country’s Memorial Day at the Seoul National Cemetery in Seoul, South Korea, June 6, 2022. (Pool Photo via AP)

SEOUL--South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol said the United Nations Security Council should respond in a coordinated manner against North Korea’s missile provocations, South Korea’s Newsis reported on Friday.

Yoon made the remarks in a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during which he also called for close communication for assistance to North Korea in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.

North Korea has been battling its first confirmed outbreak of COVID-19 infections, declaring a state of emergency last month.

South Korea and the United States have offered to provide help, including with vaccines, but Pyongyang remains unresponsive while ratcheting up tensions with a series of weapons tests.

Yoon’s call for a coordinated U.N. response came after China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid to impose new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang over the renewed ballistic missile launches.

The double veto publicly split the 15-member Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006.

In Washington, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met Kim Gunn, South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, on Thursday and discussed ways to ensure a “strong, coordinated, international response” to North Korea’s “destabilizing activities,” she said on Twitter.

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