UN Security Council kicks off emergency meeting on DPRK’s satellite launch

Hailing it as part of the country’s peaceful space programme, a state TV newsreader said the launch had been ordered by North Korea’s leader Kim Jon-un and more satellite launches were planned for the future.

United Nations sanctions ban Pyongyang from conducting nuclear tests or any launches using ballistic missile technology.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the closed-door session, France’s United Nations ambassador, Francois Delattre, described North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket on Sunday as an “outrageous provocation”. In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said it “regrets that the DPRK insisted on using ballistic missile technology to carry out the launch in spite of the pervasive opposition of the worldwide community”.

The missile was launched from western North Korea on Saturday at 7:29 p.m. ET, or Sunday at 9:29 a.m. local time, in a trajectory that took it over the Yellow Sea, according to a US official.

It comes as the UN Security Council holds an emergency meeting over the firing, which critics have suggested was a ballistic missile test.

An earlier unconfirmed report from South Korea’s Yonhap news agency had suggested the second stage may have malfunctioned. Meanwhile, while the Pentagon and NORAD confirmed that while North Korea did place something in orbit. “We’ll come up with something tough”, she said.

Secretary of state John Kerry likewise denounced the launch as a “a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolutions”.

A statement said a new Earth observation satellite, Kwangmyongsong-4, had successfully been put into orbit less than 10 minutes after lift-off from the Sohae space centre in North Phyongan province.

The Foreign Secretary warned that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions present a “threat to regional and worldwide security”.

One diplomat told Reuters that Washington was hoping to tighten global restrictions on North Korea’s banking system while Beijing was reluctant to support that for fear of worsening conditions in its impoverished neighbor. The United States and its allies said it was a covert ballistic missile test and was in violation of already imposed sanctions against Pyongyang.

Last month, the North claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb – but this was widely disputed by experts.

The 15-member Security Council strongly condemned the launch and pledged to “expeditiously” adopt a new resolution with “further significant measures” – United Nations code for sanctions. “We will take action to totally protect the safety and well-being of our people”.

It is the sixth long-range missile test by the North in its program to develop nuclear-loaded ICBMs.