Photo/Illutration Japanese ambassador to the United Nations, Kimihiro Ishikane, who assumed the presidency of the Security Council for January, holds a news conference at U.N. Headquarters in New York on Jan. 3. (Hiroki Tohda)

NEW YORK--Japan’s top envoy to the United Nations vowed he will work toward uniting the U.N. Security Council over North Korea’s ballistic missile launches.

Japan is beginning its latest term as a nonpermanent member of the Security Council and is the first this year to assume the monthly rotating presidency.

Ambassador Kimihiro Ishikane told a Jan. 3 news conference at U.N. Headquarters in New York that Japan will “make our best efforts to come up with a unified voice of the Security Council” when it comes to North Korea’s weapons development.

“Having joined the Security Council, I’d like to convey the voice of the Japanese, who are facing this threatening danger coming from our neighborhood,” Ishikane said.

North Korea fired around 70 ballistic missiles over the past year, the most it has ever launched, in direct defiance of Security Council resolutions. Pyongyang even fired its first of this year on New Year’s Day.

But the council has so far failed to respond in any effective or meaningful way. China and Russia, both permanent members of the council, have opposed new sanctions against it.

The two countries shot down a resolution to strengthen sanctions in May 2022, marking the first time sanctions against North Korea have ever been vetoed at the council.

The five members rotating into nonpermanent council seats this year are Japan, Switzerland, Malta, Ecuador and Mozambique, which will hold the positions for two-year terms.

This will be Japan’s 12th time taking a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council--more than any other U.N. member--following its last term on the council, which ended in 2017.

Ishikane also told reporters the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria’s civil war is a key issue that the council must address.

“Some say that 15 million people will be in need of assistance,” he said. “Almost 3 million people are in dire need. For them, it’s a matter of life or death.”

The big question will be whether other member states can persuade Russia, which denies the crisis there.

The council extended humanitarian aid to Syria in July 2022, but it will expire on Jan. 10. Ishikane expressed his desire to adopt a resolution on Jan. 9 to re-extend the aid.

The Security Council’s primary responsibility is international security and peace, but observers point out that Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has revealed how dysfunctional the council has become.

This has led other member states to criticize the design of the security council, which is dominated by five veto-wielding permanent members.

The council has failed to adopt a single legally binding resolution against Russia, which simply vetoes any put forth.

Ishikane, meanwhile, vowed to maintain peace and stability around the globe as his country assumes its role on the council.

“International peace and security are being tested around the world. Our responsibilities as security council members are bigger than ever,” he said at a flag-installation ceremony for the five newly elected nonpermanent members of the security council.

“We need to reconfirm the principles and philosophy of the U.N. Charter to uphold the rule of law and to consider what we can do for the many people whose security and livelihoods are under threat today.”

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is scheduled to host an open debate on the rule of law on Jan. 12 and plans to call for countries other than Security Council members to participate in the debate.

Ishikane said he hopes to deepen the understanding of each country’s ideas and positions by returning to the starting point of the rule of law and the U.N. Charter.

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