North Korea missile launch condemned

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Edward Luce in Prague, Christian Oliver in Seoul, Jonathan Soble in Tokyo, and Harvey Morris at the United Nations

Global leaders condemned North Korea on Sunday for firing a long-range missile over Japan just hours before Barack Obama, US president, gave a major address in Europe calling for a “world free of nuclear weapons”.

“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.

North Korea launched a rocket at 11.30am local time (2.30am GMT) on Sunday that it claimed sent a satellite into space. The state-run news agency later said the satellite was transmitting revolutionary songs. But the Pentagon rejected the claims, saying North Korea had failed to send a satellite into orbit, and that the rocket and its payload fell into the Pacific Ocean.

Taro Aso, Japanese prime minister, called the launch “provocative”, while South Korea said the “reckless” act posed a “serious threat to peace on the Korean peninsula”. The European Union condemned the launch, while the Chinese called for countries to show “calm and restraint”.

The United Nations Security Council failed in a three-hour emergency session on Sunday to come up with a joint response to the North Korean launch, but planned to reconvene this week. The stalemate reflected Chinese resistance to imposing new sanctions on Pyongyang.

Mexico’s Claude Heller, council president, said consultations would continue with an aim to adopt a strong statement by April 15. Japan and western states in the council had hoped to secure at least a unanimous statement condemning the North Korean action.

Yukio Takasu, Japan’s UN envoy, pressed for a new resolution that would reinforce UN measures adopted against North Korea in 2006, under Security Council resolution 1718, five days after it conducted a nuclear test.

However, there was some disagreement in the council on whether the launch represented a violation of 1718, which includes a demand that Pyongyang halt ballistic missile activity. Yesui Zhang of China said all countries concerned should show restraint and refrain from actions that might lead to increased tension.

North Korea has insisted that putting a satellite into orbit is the communist state’s legitimate right under the UN Outer Space Treaty. But the US and its Asian allies have argued that any launch of a long-range rocket was a smokescreen for testing long-range missile technology.

The launch coincided with Mr Obama’s speech in Prague, which included what analysts called the most sweeping set of arms control proposals by a US president in decades.

Mr Obama, who arrived in Turkey on Sunday night for the final leg of his eight-day tour, said he would work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons and move “immediately and aggressively” to persuade the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The US president, who has agreed with Dimitri Medvedev, his Russian counterpart, to aim for a new nuclear bilateral treaty with Russia by the end of the year, pledged to work towards a worldwide treaty that would ban production of nuclear weapons material.

Tightening existing sanctions would involve UN member states taking more active measures to prevent the shipment of weapons and nuclear and missile technology to North Korea. The 2006 resolution also included a travel ban on named individuals and barred the sale of luxury goods to North Korea, a measure aimed at the country’s leadership.

But imposing further sanctions against North Korea also raises serious humanitarian concerns. The nation cannot meet its food needs and as many as a million people died of starvation there in the 1990s. The US recently halted food aid shipments to North Korea after Pyongyang reneged on the terms of an agreement that would have seen the state receive 500,000 metric tonnes.

Although the dispute is likely to loom large on the international stage, political analysts have also said the launch is an important domestic propaganda tool for Mr Kim. Intelligence agencies think he is recovering from a stroke and minor heart surgery and is looking for ways to shore up his authority against internal challengers.

A successful launch would also have helped North Korea raise much needed hard currency because Iran and Syria are traditional markets for its ballistics. The only other test of a Taepodong-2 weapon, in 2006, was a failure and the fuselage disintegrated seconds after take-off.

The test also comes as the US continues to press for the release of two American journalists who were captured by the North Korean authorities last month after they crossed the border from China into North Korea without permission. North Korea has said the two women will be tried for committing ”hostile acts”, in what would be the first trial of US citizens inside the hermit state.