Nations condemns North Korean launch of long-range rocket

North Korea has launched a long-range "missile," a South Korean defense ministry official said Sunday, an action immediately condemned by the United States as "destabilizing and provocative."
Though North Korea had said it planned to put a satellite into orbit, the launch was viewed by other nations, such as Japan and South Korea, as a front for a ballistic missile test, especially coming on the heels of North Korea's hydrogen bomb test last month. However, a senior U.S. defense official said the rocket headed toward space and, based on its trajectory, "did not pose a threat to the U.S. or our allies."
The United States, Japan and South Korea have called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Sunday, a senior U.S. official told CNN. The South Korean national security council held an emergency meeting in response to the launch, the South Korean President's office said.
North Korea's state-run TV said it will make an important announcement at 12 p.m. Pyongyang time (10:30 p.m. ET). South Korea said the rocket was launched around 9:30 a.m. local time (7:30 p.m. ET) and headed south. The U.S. official said it headed toward the Yellow Sea.
"This is the second time in just over a month that the DPRK has chosen to conduct a major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.
U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said, "North Korea's launch using ballistic missile technology, following so closely after its January 6 nuclear test, represents yet another destabilizing and provocative action and is a flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions."
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called the launch a "challenge to world peace." She said in a televised address that South Korean officials "don't know when North Korea is going to do another provocative action, so our government needs to come up with a plan to protect the safety of our people."

Source: CNN