THE UN Security Council has strongly condemned the launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea.
After an urgent meeting in New York, the council said it would soon adopt a new sanctions resolution in response.
The 15 council members unanimously approved a statement that stressed how any launch of ballistic missile technology, “even if characterized as a satellite launch or space launch vehicle”, contributes to North Korea’s development of systems to deliver nuclear weapons.
The response came after the foreign secretary Philip Hammond warned that North Korea's actions present a "threat to regional and international security", saying economic sanctions would require the agreement of the UN Security Council.
North Korea said it fired the rocket to place a satellite in orbit - but critics believe the real purpose was to test a ballistic missile.
Sunday's launch comes weeks after North Korea held a fourth nuclear test - both acts violate UN resolutions.
An emergency session of the Security Council was called in response to the launch, at the request of the US and Japan.
Speaking after the closed-door talks, Venezuela's UN envoy Rafael Ramirez, the current council president, said: "The members of the Security Council strongly condemn this launch."
He called it "a serious violation of the Security Council resolution".
People gather in front of a giant screen in Pyongyang watching a news bulletin announcing a successful rocket launch
US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said Washington would now "ensure that the Security Council imposes serious consequences" on Pyongyang.
"We will be looking to all council members to unite around a swift and aggressive response to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's repeated violations that constitute this very direct threat to global peace and security."
"There can be no business as usual," she said, adding that "we'll come up with something tough".
Despite the latest moves, Pyongyang has remained defiant, releasing a statement via its Moscow embassy saying it intends to continue launching rockets carrying satellites into space.
The statement also noted the council’s commitment “to continue working toward a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation leading to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”.
Applause in Pyongyang from those watching a news bulletin announcing a successful rocket launch
“The state agency on space exploration, following the policy of the Workers’ party of Korea on giving priority to science and technology, will continue to launch more manmade satellites,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the embassy as saying.
North Korea has been under Security Council sanctions since it first tested an atomic device in 2006. After a nuclear test in 2013, the Security Council took about three weeks to agree a resolution that tightened financial restrictions and cracked down on Pyongyang's attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.
On Wednesday the US State Department said North Korea had conducted a nuclear test but the Obama administration disputed the hydrogen bomb claim.
Setting out the UK's response, Mr Hammond said: "We will work with other partners, we have already strongly condemned North Korea's actions, we will be taking appropriate bilateral steps - summoning the North Korean ambassador as we always do when they carry out one of these tests.
"But we will be working with other partners, particularly the US, Japan, South Korea, in the United Nations, to take additional steps, additional measures against North Korea, stepping up the pressure on that country."
He added: "We are all focused on looking at additional economic sanctions which could be applied against North Korea."
Mr Hammond said the latest test did not mark a change in approach from North Korea, but was a continuation of "destabilising" behaviour.
North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse its government.
Mr Hammond said: "It's just a reaffirmation, if we needed one, that North Korea is embarked on a long-term programme to develop both a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it over long distances against potential adversaries including the United States.
"North Korea's actions are extremely destabilising in the region and beyond, but there is nothing new here - this is part of a pattern of behaviour we have seen over many years.
"We have tried before to deter it, to divert them from it. They have engaged sporadically in discussions but at the moment they seem to be determined to defy the international community and to breach multiple UN resolutions."
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