UNSC to meet over N. Korea launch

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday to discuss North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket in defiance of threats of sanctions, a Western diplomat said.

"The Japanese and the Americans have requested a Security Council meeting, which will take place late Wednesday morning" around 11:00 am (1700 GMT), the diplomat said.

Japan's chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura told reporters in Tokyo that the Japanese envoy had already called for UN Security Council president Morocco to "swiftly summon" the council to a meeting.

The Western diplomat predicted the special talks would likely see a "strong response" at the council to the rocket launch that Seoul, Tokyo and their Western allies swiftly condemned as a disguised ballistic missile test that violates UN resolutions triggered by Pyongyang's two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

North Korea had confirmed hours earlier the launch of a long-range rocket and said it had succeeded in its mission of placing a satellite into orbit.

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