Skip to main content
Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

The Latest: South Korea says North close to ‘weaponization’

Mark Field, British Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, second from left, American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, third from left, and South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, right, listen as North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Ja Song Nam, bottom left, speaks during a high level Security Council meeting on North Korea, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Mark Field, British Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, second from left, American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, third from left, and South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, right, listen as North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Ja Song Nam, bottom left, speaks during a high level Security Council meeting on North Korea, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Mark Field, British Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, second from left, American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, third from left, and South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun, right, listen as North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Ja Song Nam, bottom left, speaks during a high level Security Council meeting on North Korea, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The Latest on the U.N.’s ministerial meeting on North Korea (all times local):

3:25 p.m.

South Korea’s vice foreign minister says North Korea is “in the final stages of nuclear weaponization” and is urging the international community to grasp the urgency of the threat this poses and find ways to halt its nuclear program.

Cho Hyun warned a ministerial meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Friday that if North Korea can put a nuclear warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile “it will fundamentally alter the security landscape in the region and beyond.”

He called for a united answer of “absolutely no” to North Korean attempts to be recognized as a nuclear-weapons state.