North Korea launched a long-range rocket over Japan today, drawing swift international condemnation and triggering an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
US President Barack Obama said in a statement that North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, had violated UN resolutions and increased its own isolation, and he urged Pyongyang to refrain from further "provocative actions."
"With this provocative act, North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations," said Mr Obama, who was in Prague on a European tour.
Speaking in Prague today, Mr Obama said North Korea broke the rules with its rocket launch and must be forced to change. North Korea said the step was intended purely to launch a satellite.
The US president also pledged to reduce his country's nuclear arsenal, although he said the United States would maintain a safe and effective arsenal to deter any adversary.
Washington has said it would take steps to let the reclusive North know it could not threaten regional security.
South Korea branded the launch of the rocket, seen by many powers as a disguised missile test, a "reckless" act, Japan said it was "extremely regrettable," and the European Union "strongly condemned" Pyongyang's step.
China, the nearest the reclusive North has to a major ally, called on all sides to maintain calm and restraint.
Nato condemned the launch by North Korea on Sunday of a long-range rocket as "highly provocative" and in breach of its commitments to the UN Security Council.
"This launch will only deepen concern about North Korea in the region and beyond, and complicate the six-Party talks," Nato secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a statement of international efforts to ease tensions over North Korea's ambitions.
"I call on North Korea to cease such provocative actions and to respect immediately a moritorium on all long-range missile launches," he added in a statement.
Japan said it stopped monitoring the Taepodong-2 rocket after it had passed 2,100km east of Tokyo, indicating the launch had been a success. In its only previous test flight, in July 2006, the rocket blew apart 40 seconds after launch.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government official in Seoul as saying the rocket appeared to have carried a satellite, which Pyongyang had all along insisted was its plan for a launch it flagged would come in an April 4th-8th window.
South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said today Seoul had judged that North Korea had failed to put its satellite into orbit, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.
"Based on our judgment made so far, all first, second and third [stage] rockets fell into the ocean, and thus nothing has been put into orbit," Kyodo quoted Lee as telling a parliamentary session in Seoul.
Analysts said the launch may bolster North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's authority after a suspected stroke last August raised doubts about his grip on power, and it could strengthen his hand in using military threats to win concessions from global powers.
Reuters