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UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council was to meet in emergency session later Sunday at the request of Japan and the United States to discuss what Washington and Seoul described as North Korea's "provocative" long-range rocket launch.
The 15-member body was to hold consultations at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) after North Korea fired a long-range rocket believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile test in defiance of UN resolutions, said Marco Morales, a spokesman for Mexico's UN Ambassador Claude Heller, the council chair this month.
From the Czech capital Prague hours before he was due to give a major speech on nuclear proliferation, US President Barack Obama earlier Sunday described North Korea's rocket launch as "provocative" and called for a Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis.
In New York, Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu also requested an urgent meeting of the Council to discuss what Washington, Tokyo and Seoul view as a clear violation of a 2006 council resolution.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan also called the North Korean rocket launch provocative act and said it was in breach of Security Council Resolution 1718, which was passed after the North's 2006 missile and nuclear tests and bans it from conducting ballistic missile tests.
Meanwhile UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced regret that North Korea had spurned international appeals not to go ahead with its planned launch.
"The secretary-general regrets that, against strong international appeal, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) went ahead with its planned launch," a UN statement said.
"Given the volatility in the region, as well as a stalemate in interaction among the concerned parties, such a launch is not conducive to efforts to promote dialogue, regional peace and stability," it added.
Ban urged Pyongyang "to comply with relevant Security Council resolutions, and all countries concerned to focus on ways to build confidence and restore dialogue, including the early resumption of the six-party talks" on North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
US, Japanese and South Korean warships with missile tracking Aegis equipment were deployed to monitor the launch, which Pyongyang insists aimed at putting a satellite into orbit.
North Korea had said the rocket's first stage would fall in the sea 75 kilometres (about 50 miles) west of Japan, and the second stage would plunge into the Pacific.
The Japanese government said there were no reports of any damage or injuries in Japan from the launch, and that the rocket's boosters landed in the water as had been expected.
Beijing meanwhile urged restraint and voiced hope relevant parties would "remain calm."
A Russian military official told Interfax news agency that Russia's air defence radars detected the launch of a North Korean rocket, apparently carrying a satellite.
"The rocket was launched at 6:32 am Moscow time (0232 GMT)" Sergei Roshcha, the deputy commander of air defence forces in the Far East, was quoted as saying by the news agency.
He said Russia's air defence radars followed the rocket until it disappeared from their range.
Diplomats at UN headquarters say China and Russia, both veto-wielding members of the Security Council, were likely to block any bid by the United States and its Western allies to push for new sanctions on North Korea over the latest rocket launch.
But a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the council might take up a resolution or a non-binding statement that would reaffirm existing sanctions.
Resolution 1718, adopted in October 2006 after the North's missile launches on July 5 and nuclear test on October 9 that year, demanded that Pyongyang refrain from a further nuclear test or another ballistic missile launch, and banned the supply of items related to the programmes and of other weapons.
It also prohibited the provision of luxury goods - an item aimed at the regime's leaders.
Security Council Resolution 1695 of July 2006 condemned the July 5 missile tests and banned the transfer of items which could be used to make missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
- AFP/yb
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