North Korea Launches Long-range Rocket

North Korea launched a long-range rocket early this morning, defying mounting international pressure to cancel the test and triggering an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council.

Pyongyang had announced in advance that it planned to put a communications satellite into orbit, but Washington, Tokyo and Seoul all feared that it intended to test a Taepodong-2 missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska, in breach of a UN ban.

The multi-stage rocket lifted off at 11.30am (2.30am GMT) from the Musudan-ri site in northeastern North Korea. Tokyo said the first booster stage appeared to fall into the sea of Japan, and the second into the Pacific Ocean - in marked contrast to a Taepodong-2 test three years ago, which failed within seconds.

Details are still unclear, but the foreign secretary, David Miliband, described it as a "satellite launch" and analysts suggested in advance that the shape of the tip did not look like a warhead.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have made it clear that they still regard it as a test of missile technology, because the only real difference is in the payload, but will find it harder to press their case.

In a statement the White House described this morning's launch as a clear breach of resolution 1718, passed after long-range missile and nuclear tests in 2006. It demanded that North Korea suspend "all activities related to its ballistic missile program".

The US president, Barack Obama, urged the North to refrain from further provocative actions and abide fully by security council resolutions.

State Department spokesman Fred Lash told reporters the US would "take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it cannot threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity."

Miliband accused North Korea of a "hostile policy" towards the rest of the world, adding: "This action contributes directly to their ballistic missile programme."

Japan's chief cabinet spokesman, Takeo Kawamura, said: "Even if a satellite was launched, we see this as a ballistic missile test ... We are highly concerned by this matter."

Lee Dong Kwan, a spokesman for the South Korean president, Lee Myung Bak, expressed "disappointment and regret" over what he described as a reckless and provocative act which threatened regional stability.

Tokyo had deployed warships and Patriot missile interceptors off its northern coast to shoot down any debris which might hit its territory. But, like the US, it had already said it would not intercept the device after Pyongyang warned that shooting it down would be an "act of war" which would prompt retaliation.

US and South Korean warships equipped with missile interceptors plied the waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan, while Russian news reports said Moscow scrambled fighter jets to its far east in case of debris.

Japan has requested an emergency meeting of the security council, which will take place in New York tonight.

UN Security Council diplomats, speaking anonymously, told Reuters that no country was considering imposing new sanctions - almost certain to be blocked by Russia and China - but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions.

China has occasionally criticised its neighbour in the past - notably when Pyongyang tested a nuclear device in 2006 - but has usually preferred to use its leverage as the North's main ally in private.

The foreign ministry called for "calm and restraint" today following what it described as a satellite launch.

Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, said China had learned tough measures did not work and cost it "crucial influence with Pyongyang at even more sensitive moments".

It will probably decide that bringing its neighbour back to the table to resume the stalled six party talks on aid for nuclear disarmament is a greater priority.

Many believe the North hoped the test would strengthen its hand.

Shunji Hiraiwa of Shizuoka Prefectural University in Japan said: "North Korea is likely to judge that its negotiating position has been strengthened now that is has both the 'nuclear and missile cards'. So they are likely to take a very tough stance toward the international community."

Mike Chinoy of the Pacific Council on International Policy told CNN: "The ultimate importance for North Korea is setting the stage for what it hopes will be a renewal of diplomatic relations with the United States, but under what it hopes will be a strengthened position."

Pyongyang had warned the world that it would launch the rocket between April 4 and 8 and notified agencies such as the International Maritime Organization. It had not done so on previous occasions.

The launch will also have given Pyongyang the chance to test and improve its missile-related technology and advertise it to potential purchasers such as Iran.

And it will boost morale at home, not least because the South has yet to put a communications satellite into space. It will bolster the position of the country's leader Kim Jong-il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last year, but to be back in charge of major decisions.

"North Korea appears to have decided that it would first demonstrate its ability to launch a satellite and then settle related issues afterwards ... The fact that [it] pushed ahead with the launch indicates that internal factors seemed to be behind the act," Professor Koh Yu-Hwan of Dongguk University in Seoul told Reuters.