Agencies, Seoul :North Korea has launched a long-range rocket, violating UN resolutions and doubling down against an international community already determined to punish Pyongyang for a nuclear test last month.State media said on Sunday the mission to put a satellite into space was a “complete success” as the country vowed to continue launching satellites in the future.Pyongyang labelled the launch part of a purely scientific space programme, but most of the world viewed it as a disguised ballistic missile test. The rocket took off at around 9:00am Pyongyang time (00:30 GMT), according to the South Korean defence ministry.Its pre-orbital flight arc was planned to traverse the Yellow Sea and further south to the Philippine Sea, with both South Korea and Japan threatening to shoot it down if it encroached on their territory.Multiple UN Security Council resolutions proscribe North Korea’s development of its ballistic missile programme.Despite Pyongyang’s insistence on a peaceful space mission, its rockets are considered dual-use technology with both civil and military applications.The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting later on Sunday in New York over the launch, following a request by South Korea, Japan and the US.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the launch “deeply deplorable” and urged North Korea to “halt its provocative actions”.The United States said it would work with the UN Security Council on “significant measures” to hold North Korea to account for the launch, US Secretary of State John Kerry said.Calling the launch “a flagrant violation” of UN resolutions on the country’s use of ballistic missile technology, Kerry in a statement reaffirmed the “ironclad” US defence commitments to Japan and South Korea and called the launch a “destabilising and unacceptable challenge” to peace and security.Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the launch was “a clear violation” of UN Security Council resolutions.”We will cooperate with the international community and stand firm to take appropriate measures,” Abe said. “We will also give our best efforts to protect our people’s security and safety.”Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said North Korea had not only defied the US and many other Western countries.”It has also defied China, which is its only ally,” Brown said.Following the launch, China called on all sides to act cautiously and refrain from taking steps that might further raise tensions on the Korean peninsula.”China expresses regret that North Korea, in spite of the pervasive opposition of the international community, insisted on using ballistic missile technology to carry out a launch,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
