North Korea says to take "strong steps" if U.N. acts

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - If the U.N. Security Council takes any action in response to North Korea's weekend rocket launch, Pyongyang will react with "strong steps," a North Korean U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

"If the Security Council, they take any kind of steps whatever, we'll consider this is (an) encroachment on our sovereignty and the next option will be ours," Deputy Ambassador Pak Tok Hun told reporters. "Necessary and strong steps will ... follow that."

The United States, Japan and South Korea say Sunday's launch violated Security Council resolution 1718, imposed in 2006 after North Korea's nuclear test, which bans the firing of ballistic missiles or further nuclear tests by Pyongyang.

They have urged the Security Council to pass a resolution to condemn the violation along with a possible expansion of current U.N. sanctions. But China and Russia, which have veto powers on the council, question whether the launch was a violation and have so far blocked those efforts.

In a rare appearance before reporters at U.N. headquarters, Pak said criticism of the launch was undemocratic.

"It's not fair, it's not fair," he said. "While they themselves launch more than a hundred times the satellites ... we are not allowed to do that. That is not democratic."

He said those who saw the launch as a violation of resolution 1718 were misinformed.

"It's not a violation of the resolution," he said. "We said it's not a missile. This is a peaceful purpose, for the satellite launch. We made it clear before we launched it."

The U.S. military said no part of the Taepodong-2 rocket entered orbit, despite Pyongyang's claim it carried a satellite now transmitting data and revolutionary music as it circles the Earth. Some diplomats have said that North Korea attached a dummy satellite to the missile, but Pak disputed this.

"We say it is a satellite," he said. "We are sure. We made it clear."

A reporter asked the diplomat if Pyongyang expected better relations with U.S. President Barack Obama than with his predecessor George W. Bush, who branded North Korea a member of an "axis of evil" with Iran and pre-war Iraq.

"We still have to wait and see," Pak said.

North Korea says to take strong steps if U.N. acts | World | Reuters

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