NATO condemns 'highly provocative' North Korea rocket launch

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.

The heightened tensions in the Korean peninsula gave added impetus to the calls for denuclearization.

U.S. President Barack Obama set out his vision and strategy for ridding the world of nuclear weapons on Sunday, vowing to involve all states with atomic weapons in the process of reducing arsenals.

Delivering a speech given fresh urgency by North Korea's rocket launch hours earlier, Obama made it clear the United States would still go ahead with plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe.

However, he said the driving force for this would be removed if the nuclear threat from Iran were eliminated.

Visiting the Czech capital on a trip marking his presidential debut on the world stage, Obama committed himself to reducing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty into force and seeking tough penalties for countries that broke the rules on non-proliferation.

"The United States will take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons," he told a cheering crowd of more than 20,000 in Hradcanske Square outside the medieval Prague Castle.

"To put an end to Cold War thinking, we will reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urge others to do the same," Obama said, adding: "We will seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor.

Referring directly to North Korea, he said Pyongyang should be punished for breaking the rules with its rocket launch and called on it verifiably to scrap its nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea's latest action in defiance of U.S. warnings touched off the most serious foreign policy crisis since Obama took office on January 20, and much of the world was watching to see how he handled it.

"Now is the time for a strong international response. North Koea must know that the path to security and respect will never come through threats and illegal weapons," he said.

North Korea said the launch was intended purely to put a satellite in orbit. The White house said the launch was "unsuccessful".

Pyongyang's action will be discussed at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later on Sunday.

Aides said Obama hoped that calling for a nuclear-free world would lend credibility to Washington's efforts to resolve atomic disputes with countries like Iran and North Korea. The president was to present a "clear choice" to Iran over its nuclear program, the White House said.

"President Obama committed to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security strategy and reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal," the White House said ahead of Obama's speech.

But adding a note of realism to the glowing plans Obama will paint, the White House said: "The president reaffirmed that as long as nuclear weapons exist, America will maintain a safe, secure and reliable nuclear capability to deter our adversaries and reassure our allies."

While Obama reaffirms his already-announced plans to pursue a new deal with Russia to cut nuclear warheads, he will also vow to seek a new international treaty to end production of fissile materials for nuclear arms, the White House said.

It said he would offer to host a global summit on nuclear security - though no date was given -- and will call for "real and immediate consequences" for countries that break non-proliferation rules.

Obama calls North Korea rocket launch 'provocative action'

North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket over Japan on Sunday drew swift international condemnation and triggering an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

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 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," Obama said in Prague, on his European tour.

Washington 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 move.

China, the nearest the reclusive North has to a major ally, called on all sides to maintain calm and restraint.

Japan said it stopped monitoring the Taepodong-2 rocket after it had passed 2,100 km (1,305 miles) 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 4-8 window.

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 could strengthen his hand in using military threats to win concessions from global powers.

"North Korea is likely to judge that its negotiating position has been strengthened now that is has both the nuclear and missile cards," said Shunji Hiraiwa of Shizuoka Prefectural University in Japan.

The United States, South Korea and Japan had said the launch would in reality be a test of the Taepodong-2, a ballistic missile designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska. It is designed to fly an estimated range of 4,200 miles.

The first booster stage of the rocket launched on Sunday appeared to drop into the Sea of Japan, some 280 km (170 miles) west of the northern Japan coast, the prime minister's office said. The second appeared to fall into the Pacific Ocean.

There was no official word on just how far the rocket flew, and North Korea's official media was silent on the launch.

In New York, Japan's UN ambassador requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council to discuss the launch.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Takeo Kawamura, said that even if the payload was a satellite, it would still violate UN resolutions on North Korean ballistic missile activity.

The United States, Japan and South Korea will view the launch as a violation of a Security Council resolution passed in 2006 after Pyongyang's nuclear test and other missile tests.

That resolution, number 1718, demands North Korea "suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile program".

UN Security Council diplomats have said on condition of anonymity that no country was considering imposing new sanctions but the starting point could be discussing a resolution for the stricter enforcement of earlier sanctions.

Both Russia and China have made clear they would block new sanctions by the Security Council, where they have veto power.

"If the United States and Japan insist on a new resolution and new sanctions at the United Nations, China will most likely use its veto," said Shi Yinhong, professor of international security at Renmin University in Beijing.

"China's principle is only to support United Nations sanctions in the most extreme cases. Although the launch was serious, it was much less serious than the nuclear test."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the launch was not conducive to peace and stability and called on North Korea to return to six-country talks on ending its nuclear programs.

Stephen Bosworth, Washington's special envoy for North Korea, said ahead of the launch last week that he hoped to bring the North back to the talks once the "dust" had settled.

While saying the talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States were central to efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program, he also said Washington was ready for direct contact with Pyongyang at any time.

The six-party talks stalled in December and Pyongyang has threatened to quit the dialogue if the UN imposes any punishment over its rocket launch.