News Service from House Harris

US: UN Security Council to meet over NKorean rocket launch

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 AFP - The UN Security Council was to meet in emergency session later on 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 3pm (0500 AEST, Monday) 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 in breach of Security Council Resolution 1718, 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.

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.