US calls for UN meeting on North Korea's attempted satellite launch

The United States has called for a UN Security Council meeting on Friday to discuss North Korea's attempted satellite launch this week, the spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations said.

The launch on Wednesday was an attempt by North Korea to put its first spy satellite into space, but it ended in failure, with the booster and payload plunging into the sea.

Washington condemned the launch, saying it used ballistic missile technology in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and risked destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond.

Nate Evans, the spokesperson for the US mission to the United Nations, said the United States had called for an open meeting on the launch, which means the proceedings would be streamed live.

Another UN diplomat said the call was made jointly with Albania, Ecuador, France, Japan, Malta and Britain.

The North Korean satellite's launch

Following the failed launch, North Korea's Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said her country would soon put a military spy satellite into orbit and vowed that Pyongyang would increase its military surveillance capabilities.

Speaking in Tokyo on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said "North Korea's dangerous and destabilizing nuclear and missile programs threaten peace and stability in the region."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said any launch by Pyongyang using ballistic missile technology breaches Security Council resolutions, a spokesperson said.

In her statement, Kim Yo Jong said the criticisms of the launch were "self-contradiction" as the US and other countries have already launched "thousands of satellites."