UN Security Council kicks off emergency meeting on DPRK's satellite launch

UNITED NATIONS -- The UN Security Council began an emergency meeting on Sunday in response to the satellite launch by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which violates relevant Security Council resolutions.

The meeting, held behind closed doors, started here at around 11:00 am (1600 GMT) at the request of the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

The DPRK launched a long-range rocket Sunday morning. Regardless of its true nature, the launch marks a negative development of the situation on the Korean Peninsula as it has sparked extensive world anxiety and concern, observers here said.

Tensions on the peninsula have escalated since the DPRK claimed it conducted a hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6. The test, the DPRK claimed as its first hydrogen bomb, was the fourth of nuclear detonations following tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013 respectively.

The council resolutions prohibit the DPRK from test-firing any rocket based on ballistic missile technology or conducting any nuclear activity.

The firing of the rocket came as the 15-nation UN body is discussing a new council draft resolution in the wake of Pyongyang's Jan. 6 nuclear test.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a statement issued here Saturday night, called the latest rocket launch "deeply deplorable" and the move is in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions "despite the united plea of the international community against such an act."

China expressed regrets after the DPRK launched the earth-observation satellite Sunday morning, calling for calmness to avoid further escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

"The DPRK should have been entitled to peaceful use of outer space, but this right is currently restricted by the United Nations Security Council resolutions," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, in response to a question on the DPRK's announcement on the launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong-4.