UN condemns N. Korea’s rocket launch

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea

The U.N. Security Council on Sunday strongly condemned North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket that world leaders denounced as a banned test of dangerous ballistic missile technology and another “intolerable provocation.” The U.N.’s most powerful body pledged to quickly adopt a new resolution with “significant” new sanctions.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un went ahead with the launch just two hours after an eight-day window opened early Sunday, and a month after the country’s fourth nuclear test. He ignored an appeal from China, its neighbor and important ally, not to proceed and in another slap to Beijing, he chose the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Since its Jan. 6 nuclear test, which the North claimed was a powerful hydrogen bomb but experts believe was not, China and the U.S. have been negotiating the text of a new Security Council sanctions resolution.

The U.S., backed by its Western allies, Japan and South Korea, wants tough sanctions reflecting Kim’s defiance of the Security Council. But diplomats say China, the North’s key protector in the council, is reluctant to impose economic measures that could cause North Korea’s economy to collapse.

The 15-member Security Council condemned the launch and pledged to “expeditiously” adopt a new resolution with “further significant measures” – U.N. code for sanctions. The word “robust” referring to the measures was in an initial draft, but was dropped in the final statement.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told reporters that “it cannot be business as usual” after two successive North Korean acts that are “hostile and illegal.”