Obama says world must put pressure on Pyongyang

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama assailed North Korea for new missile tests, saying the world must “stand up to” Pyongyang and demand that it honour a promise to abandon it nuclear ambitions.

Appearing on the White House steps yesterday, Obama said North Korea’s latest nuclear underground test and subsequent test firings of short-range ground to air missiles “pose a grave threat to the peace and security of the world and I strongly condemn their reckless action.”

It was his second statement within hours of the tests, the latest in a number of nuclear actions that Obama said “endanger the people of north-east Asia.” He called it “a blatant violation of international law” and said that it contradicted North Korea’s “own prior commitments”. Obama had released a written statement chastising the North Koreans in the early morning hours of Monday.