NATO condemns North Korea for launching rocket

"I strongly condemn the launch by North Korea of a rocket using ballistic missile technology today, which follows the North Korean nuclear weapons test on January 6," Stoltenberg said in a statement.

"This launch is in direct violation of five United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which repeatedly call for North Korea to suspend all activities related to its ballistic missile programme, to re-establish its pre-existing commitments to a moratorium on missile launching and not to conduct any further nuclear test or any launch using ballistic missile technology," he said.

"NATO continues to call on the North Korean authorities to comply with their obligations under international law, not to threaten with or conduct any launches using ballistic missile technology and to refrain from any further provocative actions," NATO asked North Korean authorities.

Ignoring warnings from the part of Washington, North Korea on Sunday launched a rocket that is part of a program to develop intercontinental ballistic missile technologies, reports said.

According to the South Korean Defense Ministry, the rocket blasted off from Tongchang-ri, the North Korea's main satellite launch site near its northwestern border with China.

The three-stage rocket dropped its first stage about two minutes after takeoff.

"It then disappeared from radar four minutes later, as soon as it dropped its fairing, a nose cone used to protect its payload," the New York Times quoted Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, as saying.

However, the United States condemned the rocket launch.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called the launch a "major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean Peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well."

Image: NATO