The United States on Monday called a UN Security Council meeting this week on the risk of North Korean “provocation” as Pyongyang demands US concessions by a year-end deadline. The United States, which holds this month’s presidency of the Security Council, is scheduling the session instead of a planned meeting on human rights in North Korea, one of the world’s most authoritarian states. This week’s meeting will provide “a comprehensive update on recent developments on the Korean Peninsula, including recent missile launches and the possibility of an escalatory DPRK provocation,” a State Department spokesperson said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
