South Korea supports UN over North Korea rocket launch

South Korea has expressed support for the UN Security Council decision to tighten sanctions on North Korea for its botched rocket launch, and called for Pyongyang to refrain from further provocations. The UN Security Council on Monday ordered tightened sanctions on the communist North over its rocket launch last week and warned of new action if the isolated state stages a nuclear test.

Seoul's foreign ministry, in a statement released late on Monday, said it supported the move and urged the North to "stop provocations that could threaten peace and security of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia."

"The North should clearly realise that the international community" had adopted "a resolute and unified stance on its (rocket) launch," it said, and also called for Pyongyang to honour existing UN resolutions.

The impoverished but nuclear-armed North, led by its new young ruler Kim Jong-Un, Friday launched what it claimed was a satellite-carrying rocket to mark the centenary of the birth of its late founding president, Kim Il-Sung.

Countries including the US and the South view it as a disguised long-range ballistic missile test banned under UN resolutions. Read More