BREAKING NEWS


5:52am UK, Sunday April 05, 2009

The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting after North Korea launched a long-range rocket over Japan.

Satellite image of the North Korean missile facility at Musudan

Satellite image of missile launch pad

Britain, America and Japan have issued stark statements condemning the regime, and said its satellite launch, using a Taepodong-2 missile, violated UN rules.

Japan said the move was "regrettable" and the US called it "provocative" and said "appropriate steps" would be taken.

The Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting at 8pm UK time, where the US and Japan will call for tougher enforcement of existing UN sanctions against North Korea.

But Sky's Peter Sharp said China and Russia - who both have veto powers - would be unlikely to back a strongly-worded UN resolution.

The launch is seen as a provocative act by the US, and prompts the US to take appropriate steps to let North Korea know it can't threaten other countries in the region...Action will be taken by the US in the next few days.

US State Department spokesman Fred Lash

The rocket passed over Japan, and debris fell in the Pacific Ocean, but its trajectory is still not known.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the rocket was carrying a satellite, but it was not clear if it actually entered space.

"Judging from the co-ordinates of the rocket's flight, we understand it was a space launch body and not a missile," Yonhap said.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "I strongly condemn North Korea's action in conducting a satellite launch earlier today.

"This action contributes directly to their ballistic missile programme, and therefore puts North Korea in breach of UNSCR 1718."

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il

President Obama said: "With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations."

International pressure had mounted in recent days to halt the launch at Musudan-ri on the north-east coast - but without effect.

North Korea had said its intentions were peaceful and it was launching an "experimental communications satellite" into space.

But the US and North Korea's neighbours said it was a cover for testing the regime's long-range missile technology in defiance of UN resolutions.

The Taepodong-2 has a range of 6,000 miles, and is capable of hitting the US.

Before blast-off, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il appeared to make a rare public appearance, when he visited a theatre in Pyongyang.

A UN Security Council resolution was passed afterPyongyang's nuclear and missile tests in 200